DE MUSSON

Robert Fry’s paintings explore the human figure as a place of psychological tension. Bodies are doubled, divided and brought into relation with one another, their forms emerging from layered surfaces before slipping towards abstraction. Working across enamel, oil, acrylic, collage and ink, Fry gives material and gesture an active role in how the figure is seen. His compositions often suggest an encounter: between two people, between opposing states of mind, or between the self and its reflection. Symmetry provides a framework, yet the paintings resist a settled reading. A figure may appear assured in one passage and fragmented in another; the surface can hold together what the image seems to pull apart. Across successive bodies of work, Fry returns to these questions with changing scale, colour and intensity. The conversational arrangements of the Drawing Room paintings, the force of Purple and Red, and the physical relationships explored in The Wrestlers form part of a sustained enquiry into identity and the human condition. Each series carries discoveries from the last, allowing a composition or gesture to develop through repetition and change. Fry’s exhibition history includes presentations at Saatchi Gallery, a solo exhibition with Space K in Seoul, and exhibitions with Gallery Cornfeld and Arusha Gallery. His work was included in 100 Painters of Tomorrow. De Musson works with Robert Fry on the commercial and exhibition development of his practice, connecting the work with collectors and developing opportunities for its wider presentation. This includes research towards a mid-career retrospective tracing the relationships between his earlier series and recent paintings.