Artist of the Week

Eva Robarts

January 21, 2025

Eva Robarts (b. 1982, Miami Beach FL), lives and working in New York City. She received a BFA in sculpture from Pratt Institute in 2008. Her work blends found object sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, and poetry. Through these diverse mediums, she reimagines everyday materials to reflect on identity, society, and her immediate environment. Eva has held solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Kunstverein Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven DE; Berthold Pott, Cologne DE; Galerie Jeanroch Dard, Brussels BE; Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, New York NY; The Hole, New York NY; Art Lot, Brooklyn NY; and Primary, Miami FL. Recent group exhibitions include: Channels at Below Grand, New York, NY; “See The Moon?” at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY; “Not Really Really”, curated by Frédéric de Goldschmidt and Agata Jastrząbek, Brussels, BE; September at Tatjana Pieters Gallery, Ghent BE; “Today/Morrow” at Balice Hertling, New York NY; “Wayfarers”, at the Berman Museum, Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA; Université de Strasbourg FR and at the semiannual Martin Margulies Collection in Miami FL.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
At the moment I’m unemployed, living in Brooklyn, still figuring things out. I don’t really have a singular medium I lean into – my attn grabs things I follow that for a bit, loose interest and pick up something else. If I focus on a particular body of work for too long time I start to dislike the thing I’m working on and that’s not good.

Eva Robarts 2024 LVL3
Dancers | 2021 | Scythe, rearview mirror | 36” x 36” x 60”

Is there a moment you look back on as being formative to your identity as an artist?
I was a superintendent a while ago – that was big.

Are there any influences that are core to your work?
Walking. A lot of walking. Wandering and talking to myself is fun. Talking loudly to myself in public is great. I noticed my parents do this. I see a lot of things all the time, read, write, listen to music. Nothing I think of as being core. That sounds limiting. “Core” is temporary at best.

Do you have any rituals when you start a project?
No not really

Eva Robarts 2024 LVL3
Compression Pose no. 2 | 2023 | Hand cart, push carts, Chevrolet Astro side ladder, bed frame components (adult and child size), office chair components, motorcycle accessories, mini rubberized shelving unit, sidewalk salt spreader handles, curtain rod component, step stool rails support, fire hydrant cap with chain, feed hopper for electric grater, carriage nut and bolts, zinc-plated threatening rods, lock washers, nuts and bolts | 25” x 110” x 19”

Your work often incorporates found objects. When you are sourcing material for your work, is there something in particular that you’re drawn to? Do you actively search for certain materials or do you collect what comes across your path?
Yes and no. Depends. I like lines a lot. There’s a groove I worked into my brain where I reflexively use linear found materials to articulate form. Sticks, tubes, poles, extrusions. Sometimes I cut the stick-part out of something else cause I like it so much. Speaking to process though, it’s almost easier for me to conceptualize my sculpture as a drawing practice. Giacometti comes to mind. There’s something addictively architectural about his portraits, like an interior city running withing each person. Line is direction and support, it’s simple – scaffolding, pylons, piping, rafters, the bones of buildings – all lines.

Your last question sort of threw me cause I realized in writing out this answer I have an awareness for finding materials that always seems to be on. Tbh I’m a little worried now cause I think it’s important to cultivate distance with the studio – but anyways, I don’t think I can say I “Actively search for certain materials”. There are ideas I have that require material commonality, but imo it’s futile to go out looking for specifics. That takes out so much of the spirit. My work is spiritual, at least to me. Something in the searching – I don’t want to lose that.

Eva Robarts 2024 LVL3
Weaving no. 18 | 2023 | Assorted broom and mop sticks | 39″ x 24″ x 5″

Your mop paintings are also a core part of your practice. What is your process like for creating these works? What was your inspiration to use a mop as a tool for mark-making?
I had mentioned before that I had this job as a superintendent to my apartment building. Mopping the floor was a weekly routine and I found myself in a Zen state when swooshing the mop side to side. Watching the water dissolve right in front of me – I wanted to try to capture that moment. Like the last breath of a brushstroke.

Eva Robarts 2024 LVL3
Untitled (Mop Painting) | 2022 | Hydrocal plaster, spray enamel, vinyl tile on wood panel | 72” x 48” x 2”

Chainlink fencing is a common material in some of your found object constructions. What draws you to using this in your work?
I have these old memories of seeing balls caught in chain link fences as a child – that’s probably the best answer I could give.

Eva Robarts 2024 LVL3
Fantasy of Happiness | 2022 | Assorted balls in chain link gate | 52” x 42” x 4”

Your Scaffolding Paintings series has been a component of your practice for several years. What led to your beginning of this series?  Is there a conversation you want these works to foster for your audience?
At one job site, I remember seeing a scaffold pressed up against a wall in a way where it couldn’t be pulled back. The painter was restricted to working within the window of the frame. It felt desperate but also brilliant, so I snapped a photo. That was the genesis, but to your question, I don’t have a rigid conception of how these works should be. All I can say is it’s important to respond to each space on its own. In full transparency, this is not something I get to do often and it’s not as surgical as a Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing with a litany of production guidelines. I just like a painting that undermines expectations – tradition, sales, collecting, installing, archiving, all of it.

Eva Robarts 2024 LVL3
Scaffold Painting no. 41 | 2023 | Scaffold tower, paint on wall | 156” x 180” x 36”

You’ve recently released A Poem for Tompkins with aNYthing, as well as having previously released poetry in your own publication, poems and pictures. How does your written practice and your visual practice interact with one another?
So much of my practice happens outside the studio. What people don’t see is the time I spend combing the city, searching and gathering, getting lost and then stumbling my way back onto the grid. Poetry has a way of breathing life to this side of my practice. Even people and places that have influence on my practice are given a new form through it. In some ways it’s the hardest medium because it requires access to a part of myself that is uncomfortably vulnerable albeit very rewarding.

Eva Robarts 2024 LVL3
Zoe was here (Mop Painting) | 2022 | Hydrocal plaster, spray enamel, vinyl tile on wood | 72” x 48” x 2”

What is your experience like as an artist living and working in New York, and how does it compare to having previously lived and worked in Miami?
Hard to answer, I love both in different ways. For some reason, Nyc keeps me going longer – I can’t explain it, maybe more fuel in the tank. I like the pace of it up here too. I think it’s more about how I’m wired tho. For-better-or-worse I’m diagnosed with high anxiety and New York camouflages that in a way where I can better focus on my art and feel grounded in the process. Miami is so different. All my childhood memories are always popping up. I really liked growing up down there – I was raised in South Beach, so there was always something going on. But in other ways Miami is slow and introspective and beautiful to a detriment – too much beauty just isn’t good for me.

What do you collect?
Trucks, push carts, scaffold components, mounted bike racks, bathroom shelving components (rubberized and non-rubberized), closet shelving components, child’s foldable chairs, Café Mogador outdoor chair components, 90-degree rebar, Chevrolet Astro side ladders, bed frame components (adult and child size), office chair components, motorcycle accessories, sidewalk salt spreader handles, curtain rods, step stool rails supports, fire hydrant caps – with or with out the chain, feed hoppers for electric graters, bike components (chain / seat stays) mainly, brooms and mop sticks, bridge feet for crowd control barriers, extension poles, push carts, latrines, senior citizen walkers, pedestrian crossing signals, dishracks, neon signs, various text elements, hoisting components – like winches, casement windows, trampolines, manhole collars, trucking door mounted mirrors, basketball rims, see-saws…

 

Interview conducted by Luca Lotruglio.