CONTEMPORARY: Bob & Roberta Smith 

Bob & Roberta Smith, born in 1963 in London, invite us to question high art, and the role that aesthetic elitism has to play in society today. At the core of its practice Bob & Roberta Smith assert that art can and should be an essential tool in the democratic process. The means by which the artist explores this is through humour.

Key to Bob & Roberta Smith’s practice is sign painting. These works take the form of absurd, faux-political or revolutionary-in-spirit slogans. They are painted on reclaimed timber, old bits of board, paper or rather more traditional canvas. The sentiments expounded are often hard hitting, sometimes stating the obvious, sometimes highly opinionated, and mostly very funny.

Bob & Roberta Smith have had a number of solo shows including The Beautiful Poetry of Bob & Roberta Smith at the Hales Gallery, London (2005/6) and Help Build the Ruins of Democracy, Baltic (2005).