2017
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.
Modern
By Greg Miller
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Contextually within the framework of postmodern Neo-pop and Post-pop, Miller utilizes a semiotic process of mining familiar pictorial codes from the popular culture of his youth for ...
Canvas, Paper, Acrylic
To The Ghosts Who Write History Books (Sinatra)
By Robert Mars
Located in Napa, CA
Robert Mars’ graphic compositions and rich colors provide an ideal medium in which to explore his fascination with the Golden Age of American popular culture and the icons of the 1950’s and 60’s. Drawing inspiration from the near-mythical fame that surrounded celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn before the instant and all-encompassing presence of the internet, Mars’ daring approach creates paintings with a nostalgic yet innovative vintage quality. Mars begins by defining borders and background planes of color with sheets of brown paper and then proceeds to layer paint and vintage paper ephemera...
Resin, Mixed Media, Panel
$11,249
H 35.83 in W 35.83 in D 1.19 in
The Most Beautiful by American Artist Robert Mars, Mix Media 2018
Located in Sofia, BG
Robert Mars Chronicling a fascination with 1950s and 1960s iconography, Robert Mars has produced a body of artwork from his studio in Connecticut that celebrates the commonplace objects and icons of an America long past in a thoroughly modern, and exquisitely constructed, manner. His eye for a distinct facet of American history is impeccable, and his ability to manipulate both the color and wordplay of vintage printed material...
Canvas
Timeless
By John Quigley
Located in New York, NY
Mixed Media on panel. Homage to the famed Channel. Fashion. Artist Statement: "I am a self-taught artist who utilizes an experimental approach. I let the experience of creating...
Mixed Media
Reaching Beyond
By James Henderson
Located in New Orleans, LA
Based in New Orleans, James Henderson’s work explores the concept of memory and the idea of ‘home’ as an emotional space, rather than a physical one. Utilizing found imagery and text as a starting point, Henderson collages and layers his mixed media paintings to create a rich background onto which he often adds the silhouette of a figure, an icon of a house, or colorful drawings of children or shapes. The inclusion of imagery from vintage dress patterns...
Canvas, Mixed Media
Price Upon Request
H 24 in W 24 in D 1.5 in
Contemporary Art, Mixed Media Art, Portrait Paintings-Now Turn to the Left
By Addison Jones
Located in Delaware , OH
Contemporary Art, Mixed Media Art, Portrait Paintings-Now Turn to the Left ABOUT THIS PIECE: “Now turn to the left, (Cortney-A4)” is mixed media street art by Addison Jones featurin...
Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic
Yes to Everything
By Cabell Molina
Located in New York, NY
Mixed Media. Female centric. Vibrant colors. About the Artist: Cabell Molina is a contemporary artist transplanted from California to the east. Where Cabell has proved hersel...
Mixed Media
Tribute to Bix Beiberbecke
By Stephen Longstreet
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Tribute to Bix Beiberbecke Mixed media collage, 1974 Signed and titled in ink; lower right recto (see photo) Signed and dated ’74 in red crayon verso Image size: 32.5 x 22.75 inches Condition: Wrinkles due to collage and support sheet Provenance: Joseph Erdelac, Cleveland (friend and patron of Longstreet) One of the first Jazz Legends. He died at age 28 from alcoholism. Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist, and composer. Stephen Longstreet (1907-2002) Born Chauncy Weiner (sometimes spelled Wiener) in New York City in 1907, Longstreet reinvented himself on a regular basis. Changing his name first to “Henry,” then “Henri,” he started his career as a commercial artist for a department store. In various public biographies he claimed to have studied in New York, London, and Paris, and said he was a student of cartoonist Ralph Barton (1891-1931). Facts that can be documented are that he was art editor for Golfer and Sportsman magazines, and was a contributor to various other magazines including The New Yorker, Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Life, and Hooey, among others. He wrote sketches for NBC radio and the Rudy Vallee Show. In the 1930s, Longstreet worked and wrote under the names Thomas Burton, David Ormsbee, and Paul Haggard...
Mixed Media
By The Way (Original)
By Joann Côté
Located in Toronto, ON
Original - Mixed Media on Canvas Hand Signed by Joann Côté
Mixed Media
A Cut Above
By Cabell Molina
Located in New York, NY
Mixed Media. Female centric. Featuring Madonna. About the Artist: Cabell Molina is a contemporary artist transplanted from California to the east. Where Cabell has proved hers...
Mixed Media
