ROBERT MARS

Robert Mars is a contemporary American artist who uses mixed-media collages to explore issues of luxury and fame. Influenced by the works of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, Mars depicts Pop icons of the past in an ironic, humorous way with collaged printed matter, paint, and fluorescent lights.

The artist begins his works by preparing canvas surfaces with several layers of brown paper in order to define the edges and delineate the background planes of color. He then alternates layers of paint and scraps from old magazines, sanding away portions of the layers as he works to distress the images, later adding resin or neon, with the aim of evoking a vintage quality. “I wanted to keep alive the things that really made an impact in the 50s and 60s and still have relevance today,” Mars has said. Born on December 9, 1969, he went on to study at and graduate from the Parsons School of Design. He lives and works in New York, NY.