Robert Aitchison

Biography

Robert Aitchison is a New York City based artist who makes paintings, drawings, and mixed media works that explore the human condition.

His creative practice is grounded in community engagement; exploring themes of connection and intimacy with people encountered in shared public spaces.

Recent solo shows include ‘State of Emergency’ at Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY. Recent group shows include ‘Go Figure’ at BWAC, Brooklyn, NY and ‘Nosotros’ at Aldeas Alalay, La Paz, Bolivia. He has upcoming exhibitions in Bolivia in 2025.

Aitchison has exhibited globally and his works are held in private collections in South America, United States, and Europe. He has been reviewed or featured in Voetnoet (Holland), Austin American-Statesman, La Razón (Bolivia), & Univision among media platforms.

He is founder of Arte Fogata, an art outreach project serving at-risk Indigenous youth in Bolivia and co-founder of Openings, a New York City based artist collective. He also leads an art program at the Bowery Mission in the SoHo neighborhood of NYC serving the homeless community.

Aitchison was raised in Spring, TX and holds a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin.

He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and La Paz, Bolivia

Statement

I make portrait-based artworks that explore the human condition.

My creative practice is grounded in community engagement; exploring themes of connection and intimacy with people I encounter in shared public spaces such as on streets, in subways, waiting in crowds, or gathered in parks and plazas.

An enduring interest in ideas about interiority inspires me to emphasize and convey the character, psyche, and inner emotional landscapes of those around me.

The paintings evolve from drawings I make—from memory— based on direct and indirect interactions with others throughout daily wanderings.

The images exist as portrait informed composites rendered in a visual language of distortions, fragments, fractured layers, and lyrical forms that evoke the dynamic of how we often visually connect with one another in the fast-moving digitally infused landscape of high-speed distractions.

Our world of visually engaging with one another has become a gathering of glimpses and glances as we tend to move about our days buried in digital devices. My works offer a space for a meaningful pause to consider themes of connection and engagement.