Evan Robarts

Primary is proud to present Mop & Scaffold, Evan Robarts' first solo exhibition in Miami, consisting of two distinct yet related bodies of work that find themselves steeped in the conventional material. This collection of eleven paintings and two sculptures is a response to Robarts' city of birth and a reply to the architecture of Primary (Home). 

There is a story recorded in the skin of your palms, a choreography of sorts. Within lies familiarity to a tool, rhythm, a movement that is responsible for a scar, a chore that became a meditation. If there is no separating ourselves from our actions or the actions that surround us, then there must be a narrative that we carry in the husk of our hands, informing a person's unique individual motion. Cleanliness is next to godliness?! Traces of our collective fingerprint wiped away, removal by mop. 

Many of us participate in the dance of decontamination regularly, so much though that it has become a custom, with defining cultural moments like Gene Kelly's performance of Let Me Call You Sweetheart in the 1943 film Thousand Cheer.

In opposition, Robarts' appropriates the mop, capturing his poetic gesture in plaster, directly onto brightly colored linoleum tile. Robarts lends his humanity to the painting, arresting a motion of labor that spans generations, across social class, revealing the beauty in a mark easily ignored or meant to be forgotten.

To reveal the structure, you must pull back the skin. "Chrysalis," a tip of the hat to Sol Lewitt, is a 15' x 7' x 5' vertical monument that draws your eye up and into the brightly colored painting on the surface of the building. This staging system of modern metal tubing, crossbars, and locking mechanisms exists in contrast to an ephemeral composition. These whimsical fields of color converse with steady steel building blocks, reminding Robarts that change comes in all its glory with each moment passing the time.

Imagine Robarts, captured cinematically, cycling around Miami to a soundtrack. Picture the scene opening with Them / Van Morrison, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." The combination bass guitar & heavy filter acoustic piano presents you with a nostalgic vibe, almost dreamlike. Haven taken up residence in New York City for the more significant part of a decade, the metamorphosis of the Miami landscape encapsulates and informs the immediate senses of our cyclist. With nostalgia tugging at his heartstrings, Robarts describes these works to be his most romantic to date. Developed entirely in his hometown, they are an effort to shine a light on his past, contribute to the present, and function as an exercise in letting go.

Opens | January 31, 2020 | 6 PM

Evan Robarts (b. 1982, lives and works in Brooklyn, New York City) studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions at Berthold Pott (Cologne DE), Bryce Wolkowitz (New York NY), Balice Hertling (New York NY), the Collection Frédéric de Goldschmidt (Brussels BE), Bank Gallery (Beijing CHN), The Berman Museum (Collegeville PA), The Centre d’Action Culturelle (Niort FR), The National Arts Club (New York NY), Université Strasbourg (Strasbourg FR), The Marguiles Collection (Miami FL), Oolite Arts (Miami FL) Kunsthalle Bremerhaven (Bremerhaven DE) and the Pratt Institute (Brooklyn NY).

Primary. (est. in 2007) is a context & research driven curatorial collective with a focus on public arts. Located in Little River, Miami, our private residence explores modern ideas on the subject of live/work, connecting new voices in contemporary art with growing audiences & collections.