Artist Edition Screenprint of buying Russell Westbrook by Robert Otto Epstein / Printed by Kayrock Screenprinting

6 color screenprint on Mohawk 100lb cover, 24"x18", 2017

Robert Otto Epstein's (b. 1979) portrait series represents his interest in language and symbols—how a signifier both represents and takes precedence over the meaning of its subject. His portraits are based on Google search images of Hollywood celebrities, fashion models, and sports players. Epstein works within a visual vocabulary of analog patterns and super-flat spaces. Facial features like eyes, noses, and mouths, are playfully reduced to simple forms. Sometimes they smile or stare back, but they always engage the viewer with stoic posturing. Like a writer who accesses memory in order to ‘read' or make sense of the present, Epstein pulls from a nostalgic past as he renders his figures and invents their wardrobes. The paintings act as both a short and a final cut; they are “linguistic biographies” of his intriguing subjects.

Robert Otto Epstein studied philosophy and political science at the University of Pittsburgh and law at the University of Durham in the UK. He has shown widely in the US: The Hole (New York); Eric Firestone Gallery (East Hampton, NY); The Drawing Center (New York); High Noon Gallery (New York, NY); Ada Gallery (Richmond, VA); Roberts Projects (Los Angeles); Jeff Bailey Gallery (Hudson, NY); Jack Hanley Gallery (New York); Mulherin +Pollard (New York); Morgan Lehman Gallery (New York); The University of Hawaii (Manoa); 99 Cent Plus (Brooklyn, NY); Hemphill Fine Arts (Washington D.C.); Pierogi Gallery (Brooklyn); Geoffrey Young Gallery (Great Barrington, MA); LIU Brooklyn (Brooklyn, NY); Hionas Gallery, (New York); Harbor (New York, NY). Epstein has been featured buying in: The New York Times, VICE, ELLE Magazine, L Magazine, Juxtapoz, The Wild Magazine, The Jealous Curator, Design Sponge, The Chronogram, The New Criterion and Dwell Studio. Epstein's work is in the corporate collections of Facebook, The Big Human, Fidelity Investments, and Oscar Health to name a few. Epstein has curated several exhibitions in NYC. Epstein currently lives and works just outside of New York City.