Wishy Washy, 2006 / Mixed Media on wood panel - interior/exterior lighting, interior/exterior sound installation / D:100 x W:100 x H: 96 inches
Collection of the Museum of Art and History
Attention Sun Thrifters (Pink), 2014 / mixed media on paper / 15 x 12 inches
Attention Sun Thrifters (Yellow), 2014 / mixed media on paper / 15x 12 inches
Attention Sun Thrifters (Red), 2014 / mixed media on paper / 15 x 12 inches
Ancestor, 2011 / mixed media on wood panel / 11.75 x 11.75 inches / Permanent Collection Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art
Your Blood System, 2007 / mixed media on canvas / 30 x 40 inches / Permanent Collection Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
See For Me, 2012 / Mixed media on paper / 30.5 x 23.75 inches / Permanent Collection Norton Museum of Art
Absurdity Sheds in Natural Light, 2013 / Mixed media on canvas and wood panel / 40 x 100 inches
Reality Waits in Natural Light #14, (Series) 2013 / Mixed media on canvas and wood panel / dimensions variable
99% A, 2012 / Mixed media on paper / 8 x 10 inches
99% B, 2012 / Mixed media on paper / 8 x 10 inches
What If I Was Made of Nine Colors, 2012 / Mixed media on paper / 9 x 12 inches
Clever to a Fault, 2011 / Powder coated steal, paint, foam, plexiglass and bird seed / W: 105.5 x H: 93.5 D: 32 inches
Forging Wilting Wishes, 2011 / Mixed media on wood panel / 18 x 24 inches
Goodness Grapes, 2011 / Mixed media on canvas / 84 x 84 inches
I’m Thinking Yellow Orange, 2011 / Mixed media on paper / 9 x 12 inches
Stain on Lemon Yellow, 2011 / Mixed media on paper / 30 x 58 inches
Always Alive, 2009 / Mixed media on canvas / 84 x 84 inches
Anti Accidents, 2009 / Mixed media on canvas / 20 x 26 inches
Bouncing Back and Forth, 2009 / Mixed media on canvas / 58 x 30 inches
Reddi Wip Laughter, 2009 / Mixed media on canvas / 60 x 69 inches
Spacey Still-life with Protective Pigeons, 2009 / Mixed media on canvas / 84 x 48 inches
Clay Development, One and Two, 2009 / Mixed media on canvas / 8 x 10 inches (each image)
Joy Jelly Jump Junk, 2009 / Mixed media on canvas / 84 x 192 inches
Yesterday’s Goodyear, 2008 / Mixed media on canvas / 62 x 112 inches
Sensing Needs, 2007 / Mixed media on paper / 58 x 30 inches
Just Like You, 2006 / Mixed media on wood panel / 51 x 66 inches
Turbulent Tumble Tumble, 2006 / Mixed media on canvas / 84 x 120 inches
Brace Together Spin Spin, 2006 / Mixed media on canvas / 84 x 120 inches
For brothers Rob and Christian Clayton, collaboration is more than a process: the concept of symbiosis resonates through every aspect of their paintings and installations. In a practice devoid of ego and restraint, the Clayton brothers develop intensely compacted narratives on an intuitive basis. Rob and Christian Clayton seldom work on the same canvas at the same time, or discuss their projects during their creation. Playing off of a uniquely unspoken synergy, they take turns inventing, adding to, and editing each piece, propelling their "stories" through spontaneous improvisation. Entwining their independent approaches, styles, and palettes, their works operate as co-authored epics, fusing the concept of self with the communal.
Working from their Los Angeles studio, the Clayton brothers draw inspiration from their immediate environment by incorporating local businesses, neighborhood regulars, and snippets of overheard conversations as subjects for their paintings. Composing their pieces in conjunction with one another, recurrent motifs, gestures, places, and figures appear within different works; creating the drama of linked experience. Set upon collaged canvases, the physical layers of their surfaces create a condensed tableaux. The brothers approach painting as a visual representation of pure energy: everyday scenes explode in vortexes of blinding color, movement is practically animated, and products make their placement, an effect similar to viewing every frame of a film simultaneously. In presenting a specific locality, the Clayton brothers relate the personal to the global, but still offer a vision of "America-as-it-is." In turn, they celebrate and share all of its diverse, spectacular, and solitary splendor.
Rob (b. 1963, OH) and Christian (b. 1967, CO) Clayton both received their B.F.A.s from Art Center College of Design (CA). They have had solo exhibitions at the Pasadena Museum of California Art (CA), and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (WI) in addition to shows in Houston, New York, Beijing, Los Angeles, and Miami. Their work has also been included in shows at the Museum of the Moving Image (NY), Santa Monica Museum of Art (CA), Laguna Art Museum (CA), Kistler Beach Museum of Art (KS), Corcoran Museum of Art (DC), and the Dallas Museum of Art (TX), among others. They have also participated in more than twenty visiting artist lectures around the world, and their work appears in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (CA), Norton Museum of Art (FL), Sweeney Art Gallery at the University of California, Riverside (CA), and the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art (CA). The artists both live and work in Los Angeles, CA.
