Nostalgia, new Art Exhibition by David Roberts, launches in Brixton 29 August

Kenyan British Artist, David Roberts, will hold his first London solo art exhibition at The Department Store, Brixton (Downstairs) from Thursday 29 August to Sunday 1 September 2024.

David Roberts, (born 1986 in Kenya) is a painter and printmaker. Inspired by the dramatic and wild landscapes of his childhood, David’s artworks focus on the fleeting patterns, light and interactions of the natural world. 

Nostalgia is about unnatural events in the natural world. Roberts’ work preserves both memory and subject, however fleeting. His technique is a microscopic examination of nature’s own artwork. It celebrates the overlooked but fundamental elements of life itself: wildflowers and pollinators, revealing their magnificent but fragile beauty.

David Roberts has exhibited at Miami International Art Fair, Paris International Art Fair, and at galleries in New York, Madrid, Berlin, Seattle, Santa Fe and Nairobi. Graduating from the University for the Creative Arts in the UK, David moved to Florence in 2008 to study Fine Art at Firenze Arti Visive, Italy. He studied at the Pratt Fine Arts Centre and the Gage Academy of Art, in Seattle, USA. This formal training in drawing, painting, print making and other mediums, like pin-hole photography and encaustic wax painting, laid the foundations for his meticulous technique.

“I’ve always loved the effect of layering to create and build a painting. I started mixing rice papers, tissue papers, paints and inks in layers, then finishing the painting in encaustic wax. Some colours darken, some lighten, some layers will hide, some will reveal themselves, creating a luminosity,” says Roberts.

Growing up in Lake Baringo, in Kenya’s Rift Valley, his work is connected to the environment not only in its subject matter, but also in its materials. He has created his own technique of setting paintings in encaustic wax instead of varnish. This is integral to creating an effect of light and depth, making each artwork delicate and translucent. The beeswax is sourced from local Kenyan women’s cooperatives, which manage beehives and make honey, famed in Lake Baringo.

“The place I grew up is now completely submerged due to climate change induced floods. I’ve always been inspired by the natural world, but my recent work is influenced by unnatural events. Swarms of locusts, floods, invasive species. It’s a crisis of biblical proportions. Nostalgia is about the beauty that is to be found, however fleeting”, explains Roberts. “Life finds a way.”

Nostalgia is open daily from 10am – 5pm. Opens Thursday 29 August to Sunday 1 September 2024. Downstairs at The Department Store, Brixton, London.