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Artist uses Taft exhibit to reflect his life now

By Shannon Eblen Contributing art writer

CINCINNATI — Painter Emil Robinson has risen to great success in the art world, showing work in London and New York as well as Kentucky and his hometown of Cincinnati.

Now, his paintings can be seen at one of the Queen City's most prestigious venues: the Taft Museum of Art. They are part of a contemporary art series organized by curator Tamera Muente; Robinson was chosen as the inaugural artist.

His show at the Taft, Axis Mundi, is comprised of four works, a small show that is heavy with substance.

"I wanted the paintings to be very personal, about my life at this moment," said Robinson, 28, a 2003 Centre College graduate who has a master of fine arts degree from the University of Cincinnati. The figures portrayed in the paintings are actually Robinson and his wife, artist Catherine Richards, whom he married earlier this month.

The figures, who are portrayed undressing, are painted larger than life "but are also very quiet and intimate," Robinson said. "They become more vulnerable and physically present."

But Robinson took the paintings further than traditional figure painting. The works that constitute Convergence, a series of three oval panels, also play with the idea of space.

"My goal was to make kind of a new step in my work," Robinson said.

While those familiar with his work will recognize his exquisitely painted figures, Robinson has placed them against an abstract, geometric background that alters the mind's perception of space.

"The pattern almost became an infinite space, a space without space," Robinson said of the background, derived from the side of an auto parts store near his home. Passing it every day, he "thought it was compelling and beautiful."

"Most recently I had been working on small architectural paintings," he said. "I wanted to do it in a new way and create my own visual language for it."

Not only is the space within the paintings used creatively, the way the paintings are presented is unique. The thin aluminum and polyethylene composite panels are mounted away from the wall so they seem to float toward the viewer. "I was interested in what the physical painting really is: a thin surface," Robinson said.

The composite panel is a new element of Robinson's work, as is photography. The central piece of Convergence is a digital photograph of the wall on which his works were hung while he painted them. Marred and paint-smeared, the surface became a subject in itself.

"Painting and photography have a mixed history," he said. "I wanted to address that tension."

He sees the photograph as a connection of the other two paintings. "It's kind of an evocative poetic device hinting at marriage," Robinson said.

The Billow, another painting in the show, is a monumental landscape dominated by a looming cloud formation.

Six feet square, it fills a wall of the small gallery.

Robinson had an idea of the size of the room when he chose the paintings for the show.

"The larger painting is sort of a counterpoint to the other paintings," said Robinson, stressing the way the viewer is inescapably confronted by the landscape.

The landscape and the figure paintings have similar meaning for Robinson.

"I have a strong spirituality and religious upbringing," Robinson said. "The image of the storm is almost an Old Testament-like pillar of cloud."

The figures also have a metaphorical spirituality. He acknowledges that the landscape he has done also "gives a nod" to some of the Taft's extraordinary landscape paintings.

Even after the show at the Taft closes Oct. 18, Robinson's work will remain in the spotlight. Beginning Oct. 22, one of his paintings will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Robinson hopes to continue with photography and develop his painting further.

"I want my paintings to operate in images so I can tell you about what I'm doing," he said. "But I also want the painting to say something I can't tell you."