During the annual extravaganza known as San Diego Comic-Con, there often isn’t as much art-related options for fans besides perhaps toys and figures designed by some of their favorite artists. However, there are sometimes little surprises of intersecting interests – one of which was a booth by artist Robert Burden. The San Francisco-based painter is known for his dedication to painting many of the action figures and vintage toys that he played with in his youth overlaying various patterns drawn from Gothic stained glass, French tapestry, Persian and Moroccan rugs, and Eastern mandalas.
Two of these massive pieces were on display including Flight (which took 2500 hours of studio time spread out over 3 years. It depicts over 240 different toys, 8 pop culture references that aren’t toys, 5 hummingbirds, 4 butterflies, 4 moons, 2 skulls, and 1 da Vinci ornithopter) and a new piece he live painted on entitled Dinosaurs.
You can read more about his work in a recent interview with Juxtapoz, and also plan to be at his solo at the Gregorio Escalante Gallery opening early next year.
Discuss Robert Burden here.
