ROB EVANS
Interiors
Throuhout the span of his career Evans has been intrigued by the artistic possibilities of uninhabited interior spaces. Influenced by the early Dutch and Scandinavian interiors of Vermeer, De Hooch and Hammershøi, as well as American mid-century realist and magic realist works by Hopper and Wyeth, Evans combines a Hitchcock-like fascination with unusual vantage points and telescoping perspective along with the use of open drawers, windows and doors to create open ended and ambiguous narratives which emerge from his psychologically charged spaces. Utilizing primarily the spare interior rooms of his family's 19th century farmhouse, Evans developed a series of drawings and paintings in the mid-1980s and early 1990s which explored this theme. Telltale clues and objects suggest a human presence nearby, but leave viewers with still unanswered questions, drawing them in to forge their own personal narratives and connections. Evans also explores more formal issues in these works as well, experimenting with identical pairs of fully resolved images presented in both black and white and in color, examining how the use of color affects their impact. In addition, influenced by David Hockney’s cubist photo montage series, Evans utilizes a similar approach in several large scale triptychs and diptychs which fracture the perspective slightly from panel to panel, allowing for a panoramic view of the interior space.
Peppers, mixed media on paper, 1984, 21 x 25 inches
Collection of Reading Museum, Reading, PA (promised gift)
Late Dinner, stone lithograph, 1988, 8 x 12 inches
Collections include: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (link)
Late Dinner II, mixed media over stone lithograph, 1989, 8 x 12 inches
Collection of Parkersburg Art Center, Parkersburg, WV
Subdivisions
Beginning in the mid-1980s and continuing to the present day, Evans has explored the rural landscape near his home and in the surrounding Susquehanna Valley as an artistic vehicle for conveying a sense of urgency and unease over current environmental concerns. The plumes of smoke and steam from nearby Three Mile Island nuclear power plant and other riverside industries, jet trails, power lines, roadways and fences which divide up the surrounding land and skyscape, suggest in Evans' work the imposition of human activity on an increasingly fragile ecosystem, something the artist lives with on a daily basis as urban sprawl continues to creep out into the surrounding rural countryside from nearby cities. The intense solitude and darkness of night in the farmlands and wooded hills is interrupted by the flickering dots of light on the horizon from singular homes or nearby towns as well as the glow of headlights on the roadways, a continual reminder of this encroachment and ever-present impending threat. These human demarcations which break up the landscape also provide artistic components and compositional devices which give the work linear and geometric structure, framing, connecting, dividing and providing counterpoint to the more organic artistic forms of the natural landscape.
The Game, oil on panel, 1991, 24 x 48 inches
Private collection, Wilmington, DE
Isoceles, oil on panel, 1993, 24 x 24 inches
Private collection, La Jolla, CA
Burning II, pastel on museum board, 2020, 21 x 23.5 inches
Private collection
The Way Out, pastel on museum board, 2017, 12 x 9 inches
Private collection
Sign, watercolor, 1999, 12 x 16 inches
Private collection
Clearing, acrylic on panel, 1994, 12 x 12 inches
Private collection, Wilmington, DE
Exit, oil on museum board, 1997, 8 x 8 inches
Private collection
Along I-81, mixed media on museum board, 1986, 4 x 8 inches
Collection of the artist
Night Woods, acrylic on museum board, 1996, 12 x 12 inches
Private collection
Nocturne, pastel on museum board, 2023, 11 x 13 inches
Winter Flocks, oil on panel, 2001, 24 x 15 inches
Private collection
On the Edge, pastel on museum board, 2022, 12 x 9 inches