Biography

Robert Jessup is a painter whose work spans decades of exploration into narrative, abstraction and the expressive potential of gesture. Known for his fearless approach to mark making and his shifting movement between representational and abstract modes, Jessup creates paintings that are dynamic, layered and emotionally charged. His work often incorporates bold color, strong compositional tension and a sense of unfolding drama.

STATEMENT

You find yourself alone in an empty room filled with beautiful light. It recalls long summer afternoons when time slows to a pale yellow touched with warm grey. You begin to move, feeling the space shift around you. You turn, move straight ahead, then downward, then across. The empty room becomes your partner in a solitary dance. You move with concentrated grace, your form melodic. You hum a tune of color that becomes your identity in this moment to moment song. Your color moves across the color of the room.

You then come upon this dance. With a different voice of color, you begin a new movement. There are two of you now, moving in response to one another. Sometimes you touch. Sometimes you veer away. Sometimes your paths interweave. You remain aware of each other, of the room, and of the space between. Together you create a new form, a new identity that rises beyond each individual voice.

As more dancers enter the room, new voices join the song, creating greater syncopation and melodic counterpoint. The entire space becomes a fabric of pulsing energy and richly vibrating color. Bleached grey sand twines with strands of summer sky. Ribbons of deep evergreen brush skip alongside a coral hue from a faraway land. An entanglement of many elements becomes a symphony of life.