Robert Gericke is an artist and family doctor. In his work, he deals intensively with social
and political issues of the time. Robert Gericke draws his themes from his biography, as
a contemporary witness to the Monday demonstrations in 1989 and the fall of the Berlin
Wall, the mass unrest in Johannesburg before the abolition of apartheid, from his
military deployments in war zones (Kosovo, Bosnia and Afghanistan), as an observer of
refugee camps on Lesbos and as a GP during the coronavirus pandemic, and as an artist
in residence in Israel in 2024 and in Iceland in 2025.
Robert creates works in a predominantly dark and muted colour palette with oil paints
on canvas or beech wood both al a prima or with underpainting in several layers. He
often uses materials he has used himself or found that have a special meaning for him
or are charged with content by time or place. He subjects these to a transformation
process such as melting, bending or environmental influences to which the material has
been exposed, such as corrosion or abrasion by the sea. They are often used in his
works as religious, military or mythological symbols. The forms emancipate themselves
from the transformed materials, first as underpaintings and then as independent,
mystical figures. They could be bred hybrids of living creatures and machines, even war
machines, or they could spring from an earth that man has long since ceased to control.
Robert Gericke wants to be an eyewitness and develops his pictures from what he has
experienced.
With surrealistically transformed figures, their metamorphosis and an independent
material iconography, he encourages the viewer to reflect.
You can see more of Robert’s work on his website https://www.robertgericke.com/