Patrick Brill (born 1963), better known by his pseudonym Bob and Roberta Smith, is a British
contemporary artist
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic ...
, writer, author, musician, art education advocate, and keynote speaker. He is known for his "slogan" art, is an associate professor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design at
London Metropolitan University
London Metropolitan University, commonly known as London Met, is a public research university in London, England. The University of North London (formerly the Polytechnic of North London) and London Guildhall University (formerly the City ...
and has been curator of public art projects, like ''Art U Need''. He was curator for the 2006 ''Peace Camp'' and created the 2013 ''Art Party'' to promote contemporary art and advocacy. His works have been exhibited and are in collections in Europe and the United States. Brill co-founded The Ken Ardley Playboys and hosts the ''Make Your Own Damn Music'' radio show.
His father is the landscape painter Frederick Brill who was head of the
Chelsea School of Art
Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation.
It offers further and higher educat ...
from 1965 to 1979. His wife is the contemporary artist and lecturer,
Jessica Voorsanger.
Life and work
Patrick Brill is the son of Frederick Brill (1920–1984), who was the
Chelsea Art School head and his wife, the artist
Deirdre Borlase
Deirdre Borlase (1925–2018) was a British painter and printmaker.
Biography
Borlase was born at Dulwich in London and grew up Margate, where her father was a plumber. She studied at the Bromley School of Art between 1940 and 1944 and then at ...
. He has a sister who is a psychiatric nurse, Roberta.
He graduated from the
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...
and received a scholarship during that time to
The British School at Rome. He then obtained his
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...
at
Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...
, London.
Brill is married to fellow artist and Goldsmiths College alumna,
Jessica Voorsanger.
Brill was appointed
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the
2017 New Year Honours
The 2017 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours were awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...
for services to the arts.
Careers
Art
![Cab Exterior - 'TAXY' Bob & Roberta Smith](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Cab_Exterior_-_%27TAXY%27_Bob_%26_Roberta_Smith.jpg)
Brill is commonly known as Bob and Roberta Smith in his artistic career.
The pseudonym has been retained from the short lived period when he worked with his sister Roberta.
Smith paints slogans in a brightly coloured lettering style on banners and discarded boards of wood and exhibits them in galleries of
contemporary art
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...
across the world. The slogans are usually humorous musing on art, politics, popular culture, Britain and the world in general and they often support his activist campaigns, such as his 2002 amnesty on bad art at Pierogi Gallery, New York.
Noted for sign painting, Smith also makes sculpture using cement, as in his 2005 Cement Soup Kitchen at Beaconsfield Gallery, London. A sculpture he proposed was shortlisted for the fourth plinth in
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson comm ...
, London.
In March 2005 he was commissioned to act as curator on a series of five public art projects in the
Thames Gateway
Thames Gateway is a term applied to an area around the Thames Estuary in the context of discourse around regeneration and further urbanisation. The term was first coined by the UK government and applies to an area of land stretching east from ...
housing estates of
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
. The projects were collectively named ''Art U Need'' and were documented in a diary-format book by Smith in 2007.
Writing of a "glittering Notting Hill Gate" event to introduce the project, Lynn Barber said of Smith: "It was a startlingly unsuitable subject for such a glossy audience, but he held them spellbound. I see him as a sort of
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 27 March 2000) was a British singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Ian Dury and the Blockheads ...
of the art world, someone who keeps on trucking, doing his own thing, making absolutely no concessions to fashion or marketability, but generally giving pleasure to everyone who comes across him."
A feature documentary about the work of Bob and Roberta Smith, ''Make Your Own Damn Art: the world of Bob and Roberta Smith'', directed by John Rogers, premiered at the East End Film Festival in 2012.
In 2013, he was on the UK Museum of the Year selection panel. He is on the Tate board as an artist member.
In October 2021, Brill contributed to WWF's campaign, Art For Your World.
Speaker, writer and advocate
He has spoken as an advocate for art education and the arts and has been a keynote speaker at symposia and conferences.
A recent example of his gift for merging art and politics was illustrated in the 2006 exhibition, "Peace Camp." Smith took part in and curated the show held at The Brick Lane Gallery that explored artists perceptions on Peace.
Gavin Turk
Gavin Turk (born 1967) is a British artist from Guildford in Surrey, and is considered to be one of the Young British Artists.Tate Modern. (2009)'Pop Life: Art in a Material World' Retrieved 14 August 2012. Turk's oeuvre deals with issues of aut ...
,
Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans (born 16 August 1968) is a German photographer. His diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations.
Tillmans was the first photog ...
, and more than 100 other artists were featured. He created a project, the Art Party, in 2013 to make contemporary art more accessible, demonstrate its ability to influence meaningful conversation and political thought. It was launched at the
Pierogi Gallery in New York and at the Hales Gallery. An Arts Council sponsored a two-day conference at Crescent Arts in North Yorkshire that year. It brought more than 2000 people who attended discussions of art education in schools and lectures, listened to music and attended performances.
Brill writes for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''.
Educator
Brill is an associate professor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design at
London Metropolitan University
London Metropolitan University, commonly known as London Met, is a public research university in London, England. The University of North London (formerly the Polytechnic of North London) and London Guildhall University (formerly the City ...
, teaching bachelor and graduate students. He is also a course leader for the
Master of Fine Arts program, researcher and co-lead with Oriana Fox of the Public Acts studio and tutors in fine art.
Musician
Brill performs music, often with a group he co-founded, The Ken Ardley Playboys,
who had their first 45 released by
Billy Childish on his label
Hangman Records. Brill hosts The Bob & Roberta Smith Radio Show called ''Make Your Own Damn Music'' on
Resonance FM
Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station specialising in the arts run by the London Musicians' Collective (LMC). The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and ...
.
2015 election
Brill stood in the
Surrey Heath constituency in the
2015 general election, under the pseudonym Bob and Roberta Smith. He won the fewest votes in the constituency, receiving 273 votes (0.5%) and losing his deposit. The seat was won by incumbent MP
Michael Gove.
Exhibitions
* 2002 – Bunch of Cowards, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh
* 2002 – It's not easy being a famous Artist, Galerie Praz Delavallade, Paris
* 2002 – The Art Amnesty, Deptford X, London
* 2002 – The New York Art Amnesty, Pierogi 2000, New York
* 2002 – Useless men and Stupid Women, Anthony Wilkinson Gallery, London
* 2003 – The Mobile Reality Creator, Compton Verney
* 2004 – Help Build The Ruins of Democracy, The Baltic
* 2005/06 – Make Your Own Damn Art, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston, UK
* 2005/06 – Should I Stay Or Should I Go? (Dilemmas For Margate), Margate High Street, Turner Contemporary
* 2005/06 – The Beautiful Poetry of Bob and Roberta Smith, Hales Gallery, London
* 2007 – Peace Camp, The Brick Lane Gallery, London
* 2008 – Fourth Plinth, The National Gallery, London
* 2008 – Tate Christmas Tree, Tate Britain, London
* 2009 – Altermodern, Tate Triennial exhibition, Tate Britain, London
*2014/15 – Art Amnesty, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY
* 2017 – Folkestone Is An Art School, Folkestone Triennial, Kent
* 2018 – La Panacée-MoCo, Montpellier
Collections
*
Arts Council Collection
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
, London
*
British Council
The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...
, London
* Goss Michael Foundation, Dallas, Texas
* Sammlung Fiede,
Aschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg (; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Aschebersch'') is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not part of the Aschaffenburg (district), district of Aschaffenburg, but is its administrative sea ...
, Germany
*
Southampton City Museum & Art Gallery, Southampton, England
*
Tate Collection
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, London
*
The New Art Gallery Walsall
The New Art Gallery Walsall is a modern and contemporary art gallery sited in the centre of the West Midlands town of Walsall, England. It was built with £21 million of public funding, including £15.75 million from the UK National Lottery an ...
, Walsall, UK
Published works
;Author
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;Co-author
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References
External links
The Official Bob and Roberta Smith Website*
Gerhard Bissell Gerhard is a name of Germanic origin and may refer to:
Given name
* Gerhard (bishop of Passau) (fl. 932–946), German prelate
* Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg (1292–1340), German prince, regent of Denmark
* Gerhard Barkhorn (1919–19 ...
''Brill, Patrick'' in: ''
Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon
Thieme-Becker is a German biographical dictionary of artists.
Thieme-Becker
The dictionary was begun under the editorship of Ulrich Thieme (1865–1922) (volumes one to fifteen) and Felix Becker (1864–1928) (volumes one to four). It was complet ...
(Artists of the World)'', Suppl. IV, Saur, Munich 2010, from p. 3 (in German).
*
Interview with Myartspace*
ttps://www.riseart.com/artist/121664/bob-and-roberta-smith/art/ Bob and Roberta Smith for WWF Art For Your World
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Bob and Roberta
1963 births
Living people
Alumni of the University of Reading
Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London
Artists from Reading, Berkshire
English contemporary artists
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Pseudonymous artists
Royal Academicians