Palo Gallery is pleased to announce Charlie Roberts: Metropolis, the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. This latest body of work builds upon the artist’s magical realistic iconography, focusing on scenes of urbanity and the ways his characters move through public spaces. The keystone of this exhibition is his monumental reimaging of Otto Dix’s 1927-1928 painting, Metropolis. Robert’s painting, of the same name, takes direct inspiration from Dix’s seminal triptych, yet Roberts’ takes a different approach to Dix’s immediate socio-political critiques. Using a lighter touch, Roberts’ takes the complex scenes of a thriving metropolis (with clear references to New York) and instead explores the inherent strangeness of human interaction. His figures are often intertwined, yet clearly isolated and wrestling with internal strife. Please join Palo Gallery and Charlie Roberts for a celebratory opening reception on Friday, 11 April 2025, from 6PM to 8PM at 21 East 3rd Street in New York City. A zine will be published jointly with the exhibition with supplementary text by Michèle Wije.
It is no mistake that the central painting of this exhibition relates directly to a painting that represents the Weimar Republic and its many ironies, hypocrisies and impending horrors. In our current era of excess and political uncertainty, the themes of Dix’s Metropolis loom large, and yet Roberts uses that opportunity to explore the more contemporary phenomena of social isolations in urban, online and political spaces. Rather than naming the similarities of the political divisions both we and Dix experience, Roberts aims to dissect our state and selfhood,
perhaps as a cause or result of our current socio-political conditions.
Roberts’ renders his paintings with a splendor of art historical references and influences. The mannerist forms of Parmigianino blend with the perspectival density of Pontormo, while the fine details of each painting reveal surreal twists in the style of Bosch. From a painterly perspective, Roberts has been scrupulous in studying the technique of Dix, but also the Dutch and Northern Renaissance masters that Dix sought inspiration from. Centuries of historical references, techniques and even brushstrokes have been picked by Roberts to create a familiar yet wholly unique style that is attuned to our current moment.