Bikes, Bolts & Brooms

Nicola Vassell is pleased to present Bikes, Bolts & Brooms, an exhibition of sculptures by Eva Robarts that will be the artist's first solo presentation with the gallery. Robarts creates work from the cast offs of society, constructing pieces that reform and transform found objects taken from her surrounding urban landscape to give them a second life. Her practice, which oscillates between creation and destruction, establishes a conversation with the public and private infrastructure of the city that emerges from material remains that she collects from the streets of New York. Robarts' process begins outside the confines of her studio as she rejects a traditional studio practice that sequesters the artist from their surrounding environs. Instead, she fully immerses herself within the city through long walks across its expanse—searching, finding and gathering urban detritus that becomes the foundation for her sculptures. Through these excursions, Robarts engages in a dialogue with the cityscape, treating it as an active collaborator, and tapping into the consciousness of the civic environment through each piece that she brings back to her studio. These objects—mop poles, bike frames, door knobs—infuse each of Robarts' composite sculptures with a sense of vigorous materiality, echoed by the chipped paint, rust, dirt, and debris that coat them. The result is a collection of sculptures that pulse with the kinetic energy of the city from which they were sourced.