Evolving from his ceramic work, Robert Dawson’s paintings with clay are a reaction to the histories of both painting and the decorative arts. He re-presents ornamental motifs in ways contrary to their original function, or plays with ceramic processes and phenomena, such as tiling, mosaic paving, brick structuring or finger traces through wet clay. He submerges these references in his take on the painted picture. Order is liable to be disrupted. We are all seeking patterns in our world but the artist enjoys a disturbance in the system, a syncopation over the rhythm, a gentle violation of expectation. In his work, he sometimes uses variations in clarity or changes in perspective that might create feelings of uncertainty. Robert celebrates the unpredictability in one’s walking shadow where nothing is signified. He raises his glass to our vulnerabilities. Without these, life would be heaven. And that would be as boring as hell. Download CV