Originally from New York, Robert Sampson is a painter now based here in Philadelphia, where he portrays the city’s overpasses, rail bridges, streets and walls in strong, marvelously geometric compositions.
He enlists shadows, street markings and pass-throughs in building his scenes, as well as pedestrians, who can sometimes be seen in groups as semi-abstract shapes. Particularly enjoyable to me are the light elements of openings that often occur in the backgrounds of his paintings, lending them a wonderful sense of depth.
Sampson’s work can be seen in a solo show at the F.A.N. Gallery in Philadelphia that opens today, May 6 (coinciding with the First Friday Old City Gallery Walk), and runs until May 28, 2016.
The F.A.N. Gallery also has an online portfolio of Sampson’s work, in which the images are larger than those on Sampson’s own website.
