Robert Mars

American

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.

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Robert Mars"Heartbreak a Stranger" Kate Moss with Stuart Weitzman Collage Resin Panel Board, 2016

$16,800

H 40 in W 60 in D 2 in

"Heartbreak a Stranger" Kate Moss with Stuart Weitzman Collage Resin Panel Board

By Robert Mars

Located in New York, NY

This piece depicts famous British model Kate Moss from a Fall 2013 ad campaign with Stuart Weitzman during the Milan Fashion Week while featuring Kate Moss swaggering to Nancy Sinatr...

Category

2010s Pop Art Robert Mars

Materials

Epoxy Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel, Newsprint

Robert MarsNothing Compares 2 U, 2025

$9,000

H 30 in W 30 in D 2 in

Nothing Compares 2 U

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 195...

Category

2010s Contemporary Robert Mars

Materials

Resin, Panel

Robert MarsBardot Original Acrylic, spray paint, vintage papers and Epoxy Resin on wood, 2019

$6,800

H 30 in W 24 in D 2 in

Bardot Original Acrylic, spray paint, vintage papers and Epoxy Resin on wood

By Robert Mars

Located in Southampton, NY

This work by the internationally collected artist Robert Mars features Brigitte Bardot and is titled "For the Sake of the Song". The art measures 30 x24" it is a unique one of a kind mixed media work on wood panel. An impressive layered collage of paint, mixed media, vintage...

Category

2010s Contemporary Robert Mars

Materials

Resin, Spray Paint, Wood Panel, Acrylic

Robert MarsCinemascope

$2,500

H 25 in W 19 in D 1 in

Cinemascope

By Robert Mars

Located in Tulsa, OK

ROBERT MARS "Cinemascope" • watercolor paper 300gsm cold press 19.00w x 25.00h x 1.00d in Robert Mars stands as a vanguard in the contemporary art world, his work a vibrant homage t...

Category

2010s Contemporary Robert Mars

Materials

Watercolor

Robert MarsSome Girls, 2025

$9,000

H 30 in W 30 in D 2 in

Some Girls

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 195...

Category

2010s Contemporary Robert Mars

Materials

Resin, Panel

Robert MarsWe Three Kings, 2025

$9,000

H 30 in W 30 in D 2 in

We Three Kings

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 195...

Category

2010s Contemporary Robert Mars

Materials

Resin, Panel

Robert MarsFrom Americas Best Loved (Marilyn), 2024

$24,000

H 80 in W 60 in D 2 in

From Americas Best Loved (Marilyn)

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. He selectively sands segments of the layers, allowing specific portions of the underpainting to shine through, creating the sensation that the viewer is getting glimpses through a window into the Golden Age of America. By incorporating actual pieces of print from the eras he so adores and sealing it all under shining, impenetrable resin, Mars’s artworks transform into physical remembrances of a period in America’s past so loved and idolized, yet will forever remain trapped in history. A graduate of Parsons School of Design in New York, his artwork was selected for the Absolut Vodka Blank campaign alongside Damien Hirst, and his largest sized piece to date was acquired by Philip Morris/Altria for their corporate headquarters in Virginia. In 2015 Mars was chosen for the cover of Neiman Marcus’ May Book, while CocaCola purchased several existing works and ordered commissions for a world tour celebrating the 100-year anniversary of their trademark bottle shape, in which his artwork was spotlighted. Mars is a featured artist for a custom high end wallpaper and tile series with Kari Whitman...

Category

2010s Contemporary Robert Mars

Materials

Resin, Panel

Robert MarsRoad To Ruin, 2025

$9,000

H 30 in W 30 in D 2 in

Road To Ruin

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 195...

Category

2010s Contemporary Robert Mars

Materials

Resin, Panel

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Robert Mars art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Robert Mars art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue, red and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Robert Mars in mixed media, organic material, resin and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the Pop Art style. Not every interior allows for large Robert Mars art, so small editions measuring 18 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Charles Lutz, Nelson De La Nuez, and Keith Carrington. Robert Mars art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $2,500 and tops out at $27,000, while the average work can sell for $13,400.