(American, b. 1970) Robert Strati was born in Boston, MA in 1970 and grew up in Columbus, OH. He creates multimedia artworks using broken plates. His recent series “Fragmented” started when he accidentally dropped and broke a porcelain plate. The plate being inherited from his wife’s mother, Strati and his wife didn’t want to throw the fragments away. The plate had sat on their counter for a few months when Strati saw a vision of the motif on the plate expanding beyond the piece of porcelain.
The artist mentions in an interview with Visual Atelier 8, that “this also speaks to the reality of so many things coming from mistakes and the power of accidents, if they’re embraced from a positive perspective.” He finds beauty in chaos, and creates artworks from that beauty. The pieces come alive when Strati literally expands it. It’s as if life is bursting out of fragments of broken plates, which were previously thought to have lost their purpose and life. Using that negative association people have with accidents and broken plates, he transforms them into art.
The audience can feel the energy and almost hear the sound that the plate made when it broke. It’s as if there is energy flowing out of the plate, and reaching out to the viewers. The “Fragmented” series as well as Strati’s other works have a therapeutic feeling to them. That is partially because the act of making his works was a form of meditation. Bringing fragments together, imagining the motif flowing through and out of the piece and creating a whole new world.
Strati earned a degree in Art History from the Ohio State University. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including exhibitions at Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Los Angeles, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, The Wexner Center for the Arts Columbus, OH and the International Print Center NY, NY among others. He currently lives and maintains his studio in New York.
