Robin Bell (born 1979) [1] is an American multimedia visual artist currently living and working in Washington, DC.
Although trained as a printmaker, [2] Bell is better known for his fine art video work as a projectionist, which over the years has been exhibited/projected at a wide and diverse set of venues, such as The Hollywood Bowl, [3] Artomatic, [4] [5] the Kennedy Center, [6] the Phillips Collection [7] and others. [2] [8] [9]
Bell began gaining national [10] [11] [1] [12] [13] [14] and international [15] [16] [17] attention upon President Trump's election, [18] when he focused his projection work to deliver highly negative [19] [20] political messages in various "unauthorized" venues such as the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. [21] [22] Referencing that particular projection in 2017, The Los Angeles Times noted that it "began to go viral on social media almost as it was happening." [21]
According to The Washington City Paper, these political projections "unlocked" [23] the path to his first solo show at former Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and as noted by the Associated Press: "His work has turned into an unexpected business opportunity. Activist groups have paid his crew to travel as far away as Finland to project images on prominent buildings." [12] In 2019, The New York Times art critic Jillian Steinhauer noted that Bell's projections veer "closer to propaganda than art." [24]
Robin Bell (born 1979) [1] is an American multimedia visual artist currently living and working in Washington, DC.
Although trained as a printmaker, [2] Bell is better known for his fine art video work as a projectionist, which over the years has been exhibited/projected at a wide and diverse set of venues, such as The Hollywood Bowl, [3] Artomatic, [4] [5] the Kennedy Center, [6] the Phillips Collection [7] and others. [2] [8] [9]
Bell began gaining national [10] [11] [1] [12] [13] [14] and international [15] [16] [17] attention upon President Trump's election, [18] when he focused his projection work to deliver highly negative [19] [20] political messages in various "unauthorized" venues such as the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. [21] [22] Referencing that particular projection in 2017, The Los Angeles Times noted that it "began to go viral on social media almost as it was happening." [21]
According to The Washington City Paper, these political projections "unlocked" [23] the path to his first solo show at former Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and as noted by the Associated Press: "His work has turned into an unexpected business opportunity. Activist groups have paid his crew to travel as far away as Finland to project images on prominent buildings." [12] In 2019, The New York Times art critic Jillian Steinhauer noted that Bell's projections veer "closer to propaganda than art." [24]