In a departure from his forty-year primary practice as a painter, Cincinnati artist Robert Fronk has created a body of 3-D assembled “collages” utilizing a stockpile of thousands of wood-milled industrial foundry patterns. From origins as varied as municipal waterworks to submarine doors, these elegant forms lend themselves to Fronk’s intense study of line, form, and design. The severe color palette of black/red/yellow and the various markings are cryptic remnants of their factory backstory—not to be obscured, but rather honored as important relics of Cincinnati’s famed 20th century machinist trades. 

“Out of a jumbled pile of abandoned forms, hundreds of sculptures have emerged. Nothing preconceived, just as solutions to the process of creating order. The pieces tell me what they want to be, and since they were intended primarily to move water, they are intended to resemble what nature does. The sculptures are nods to industrial age nostalgia and Dadaist “assisted” readymades. After thousands of hours of sorting, mental sketching, fitting and refitting the objects from their material chaos and contradictions, they are titled by references to my life-long fascination with mid-century sci-fi movies, television ads, pop culture, and atomic age media detritus.” 

Robert Fronk (b. 1958) graduated from The Art Academy of Cincinnati, College of Art and Design (1977-1981) majoring in printmaking and drawing. Since 1982, He has pursued dual careers as an exhibiting artist in painting, drawing, and sculpture, and as a professional muralist specializing in large scale exterior and interior architectural trompe l'oeil treatments. While he was living and working in Chicago and New York for twenty years, his muralist and decorative finishes career included a collaboration with Roland Montijo. In Chicago and New York, he worked as a contracted painting crew foreman with the internationally acclaimed firms, Thomas Melvin Studios and EverGreene Architectural Arts, creating installations in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Miami, and Austin. The hallmarks of his commercial work feature design and execution of illusional site-specific interiors and exteriors as well as photographic backdrops and scenic art for national commercial photographers. In Cincinnati, Fronk worked with EverGreene Architectural Arts on the restoration of the historic decorative sanctuary painting at Holy Family Church. Fronk’s oil paintings, sculpture, works on paper, textiles, and stained glass have been featured in exhibitions at C.A.G.E. (Cincinnati Artist’s Group Effort); Columbia College of Art, Chicago; Bedrock Gallery, Chicago; Semantics, Cincinnati; Factory Square Fine Arts Festival, Cincinnati; Thunder-Sky, Inc. Gallery, Cincinnati; SOS ART Annual, Cincinnati, and The Warsaw Project, Cincinnati.