Robert Snikkar

Bio - Rob Snikkar

I work mainly with oils. I also paint in watercolour, draw and create mobile sculptures.

I have been influenced by Kupka, Kandinsky, Brooker, Russolo and others and have made a study of representing music.

I am now returning to paintings involving music and geometric abstractions. I will also make small mobile sculptures.

For a period I focused on creating works involving social justice issues and political protest.


Artist's statement

Music and visual art are languages that touch our innate aesthetics.
So many feelings and concepts are shared by these arts; composition, motif, balance, harmony, tension, discord, tone, key, movement, rhythm, rest, foreground, background, depth....

But how to...

- represent music through painting and sculpture? Not to simply transcribe music into notation such as sheet music.
- capture the sound space, tonality, rhythm, and feel of music visually?
- compose visual works that evoke the same emotive responses as music?
- represent a particular piece or style of music?
- paint the particular voice of Miles Davis' muted horn, a minor key, a symphony, the timbre of Chet Baker's quavering voice, or the song Back To Black by Amy Winehouse?

Largely self-taught with mentoring from professional artists and graduate of The Ontario College of Art (including my oldest brother - an alumnus) and courses at The Ottawa School of Art.

A City Une Ville group exhibition - Gallery 1313– Toronto - May 2023
Ballots Not Bullets group exhibition - WhiteBox Arts, NYC - Nov. 2022
Residency creation project “The Trial” at Arts Letter and Numbers in New York State - April & May 2022
Open Rivers Journal Project – University of Minnesota - Feb. 2022
On line painting, video and essay - “The River and The Bridge.” Open Rivers: Rethinking Water, Place & Community, no. 20

NBAF (No Borders Art Festival) 2012 – Global Panel Discussion - Oct. 1, 2021
Producer and host of ZOOM panel with artists from New Zealand, England, Scotland and Canada
NBAF 2021 – Group Exhibition - Sept – Oct 2021
Podcast#83 - CBC/Canada Council Digital Originals grant recipient - July - Nov. 2021
Co-submitter/co-founder of the podcast#83 collaborative arts project - a collaboration of Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists podcast#83 | RedCircle.
Gallery 1313 - Toronto - Coming Home - on-line group exhibition - July 29 – Aug 31, 2020

In Our Tongues Reading and Arts Series - ZOOM Event - June 9, 2020
Reading of my poetry

NO BORDERS ON-LINE ARTS FESTIVAL 2020 - ZOOM Event - May 17 & 18, 2020
My paintings, videos, animated poetry videos and live readings
Apt613 – Ottawa based arts org/blog - S...