Robert Pruitt...Son...Sun...Sin...Syn...Sen...Zen...Zenith...
Artwork
...son...sun...sin...syn...sen...zen...zenith... presents ten new works, each emerging from Robert Pruitt’s drawing practice as a form of meditation, therapy, and process. “These drawings are part of an ongoing effort to understand the shifting space between my mind, body, and the marks I make — and how, through that interaction, the work comes into being”, the artist states. Pruitt is exploring the social relationships of his art practice: how his images connect to larger ideas about the body, masculinity, change, love, loss, memory, and the process of constructing narrative from memory itself.
“The physicality of the materials — the dust, the constant need to clean, the strategies to protect myself from harm — is an ever-present reminder of the porous boundary between art and life. This messiness mirrors the emotional and conceptual states that the drawings try to hold.”
The title, ...son...sun...sin...syn...sen...zen...zenith..., is taken from a broadside written by Sun Ra, an artist whose work Pruitt often turns to for inspiration. In this text, Sun Ra engages in playful, stream-of-consciousness wordplay, weaving together ideas of change, spirituality, and biblical reference. The shifting, fluid nature of that writing echoes my the artist’s thought process while creating this body of work.
Robert Pruitt was born in 1975 in Houston, Texas. He received his BFA from Texas Southern University (2000) and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin (2003). Pruitt works in a variety of materials, with the focus of his practice centered on rendering large scale figurative portraits. He projects onto his images a juxtaposing series of experiences and material references, denoting a diverse and radical Black past, present and future. Pruitt often utilizes religion, spirituality, signs and symbolic objects throughout his work as a means of exploring a Black American conception of transcendence and mythology.