Robert Petrick

A Complicated Journey

2012

Exceptional color combinations balanced with loosely configured shapes define the abstract geometric art of noted painter and typographer Robert Petrick. Through his rhythmic and lyrical abstract paintings, Petrick explores avant-garde style while establishing a link between the street culture of the East Village in New York City and the beauty of language. 

Born in 1945, Petrick won a high school scholarship to study at Philadelphia’s Tyler School of Art, now the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. In 1983, he moved to New York City, where he became immersed in developing his unique artistic style, based on the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, as coined by the artist Robert Motherwell in 1949. 

The following year, Petrick gained critical attention for two designs he stenciled on the walls of New York’s Avenue B. Titled EXIT/EXIST and NOWHERE/NOW HERE, the works were featured in Vogue magazine and recognized by critics as compelling graffiti art.

Throughout his distinguished career, Petrick’s figurative paintings, still-life works and graphic designs have been featured on album covers and in commercial projects. His series include Shape, Gesture, Graffiti and the recent City Block, in which Petrick conveys the atmosphere of the East Village with color, shapes, energy and density. 

Petrick has exhibited in solo and group gallery shows throughout New York. His works are also in demand with collectors of 20th- and 21st-century abstract art.

On 1stDibs, discover a range of Robert Petrick’s paintings.