Robert Mars Art
Juxtaposing the faces of iconic celebrities with patterns reminiscent of quilting and folk art, Robert Mars (b. 1969) considers the many facets of American popular culture through the lens of advertising.
In Mars’s mixed-media works, brand names are collaged beneath the visages of mid-century stars such as Elvis, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, with neon lighting and shiny coats of resin on wood panels lending each piece the allure of a covetable consumer object.
Born in New Jersey, Mars studied at the Parsons School of Design and worked for a time as a graphic designer. His cultural mash-ups draw on imagery from his collection of vintage magazines. Combining enlarged Xerox transfers and boldly painted colors in several built-up layers, his works recall the messy remixing of everyday objects by Robert Rauschenberg as well as the explorations of mass reproduction and fame by Andy Warhol. The shape of a Chanel No. 5 bottle, a Louis Vuitton logo and a photograph of Audrey Hepburn are all plucked from mass media as relics of Americana and the obsession with luxury. Distressing the surfaces of the pieces, Mars gives them a timeworn texture, like an old advertisement that might be found on the wall of a roadside gas station, but with a surreal quality in their recontextualized subjects.
The stars and mass-media material in Mars’s work mostly have origins in the 1950s and ’60s, an age that saw the rise of celebrity endorsements during a postwar economic boom in which there were plenty of novel new products to promote. An image of Jackie Kennedy is overlaid with ad copy for Dior; a photograph of a victorious Muhammad Ali is joined with Champion Spark Plugs typography. The nostalgia here is for commerce as much as it is for people who became a brand. In the artist’s dynamic collages, the lines between what, or who, is being packaged and sold are blurred.
Mars has produced commissions for Coca-Cola, was a featured artist for a project with Kari Whitman Interiors and was chosen in 2015 for the cover of Neiman Marcus’s May Book. He has exhibited at the Evansville Museum of Art, Coral Springs Museum of Art and elsewhere.
Find Robert Mars mixed-media works, paintings and other art on 1stDibs.
2010s Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Epoxy Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel, Newsprint
2010s Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Spray Paint, Wood Panel, Acrylic
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Paper
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Panel
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Panel
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Panel
2010s Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Wood Panel
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel
2010s Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Cotton, Epoxy Resin, Glitter, Acrylic, Wood Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Mixed Media, Acrylic, Newsprint
2010s Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Mixed Media, Acrylic, Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Metal
2010s Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Gesso, Paper, Glue, Mixed Media, Oil, Spray Paint, Acrylic, Stretcher Bars
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Gesso, Paper, Mixed Media, Watercolor, Gouache
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Gesso, Paper, Mixed Media, Watercolor, Gouache
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Gesso, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Watercolor, Gouache
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Glass, Resin, Wood, Glitter, Acrylic, Wood Panel, Plastic
2010s Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Plywood, Spray Paint, Acrylic, Resin
2010s Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Resin, Spray Paint, Acrylic, Wood Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Resin, Plastic, Wood, Acrylic, Wood Panel
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Panel
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Panel
2010s Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Acrylic, Epoxy Resin, Mixed Media, Wood Panel, Newsprint
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel
2010s Pop Art Robert Mars Art
Resin, Varnish, Mixed Media, Board, Magazine Paper, Newsprint, Masonite,...
2010s Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Wood Panel
2010s Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Watercolor
2010s Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Wood Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Mars Art
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel