Mariah Robertson: Portraits

In Portraits, Mariah Robertson presents a new body of prints and paintings that reflect a continuation and expansion of her long-standing material inquiry across media. The exhibition brings together recent photograms from 2025 alongside related paintings on aluminum, including one monumental-scale work, to explore repetition and the shifting relationship between photographic and painterly language.

Robertson’s practice is grounded in inquiry and process rather than predetermined visual outcomes. Working in the darkroom through tightly constrained, rapid sequences, she produces groups of images that emerge through chance, risk, and repetition, returning again and again to a single form or gesture. In these recent works, a simple circular mask recurs throughout the photograms as a unifying structure, representing a marker of return. These photographic works serve as the starting point for her paintings, which expand the visual and conceptual language of the photograms into another realm of material investigation.

The decision to paint emerged from Robertson’s desire to develop a meaningful comparative language between the two primary two-dimensional media. Painting the “portraits” of her own photograms allowed her to examine assumptions embedded in photographic practice, including ideas of control, authorship, and value, by pushing against them through physical engagement with materials. While the paintings are executed directly on aluminum in varying sizes, the monumental-scale work is supported by custom aluminum structures that enable it to exist as an object with architectural presence.

Mariah Robertson: Portraits reflects a practice driven by experimentation, systems, and sustained material investigation across media. Presented at CHART Gallery in collaboration with Van Doren Waxter, the exhibition positions photography and painting not as opposing disciplines, but as interconnected processes through which Robertson continues to expand the scope of her inquiry. ◆

Opening reception | Friday, February 20, 6–8pm
IMPULSE Magazine Forum | Tuesday, March 17, 6pm

Closing performance: Nepenthaus | Saturday, April 11