Roberto Azank

Roberto Azank was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1955, the grandson of an oil-on-canvas artist and the son of a master embroidery designer.

At the age of 14 Roberto won the first prize in painting at his High School, and went on to study photography and later architecture at the University of Buenos Aires.

In 1979 he moved to the United States where experimentation with various artistic forms and media led to his decision to pursue a career in the arts. As he continued to hone his craft, he began painting brightly colored abstract works in acrylics. By the late eighties, his style had evolved from abstract to figurative, and he started painting in oils.

In 1994, Azank moved to New York's Catskill Mountains and found in his still life and flower works the definitive style for which he is known.

By 1996 Roberto had a distinctive style and moved to New York City to show his work. 

Azank’s Chi Kung teacher, Dr. Harold Koning, was a friend of New York gallery owner Robert Miller, who proved helpful in getting the emerging work noticed. He showed some of Azank's early Still Lifes and bought #41 off the easel. He also introduced him to people that would prove instrumental in Azank’s career. Poet Charles Henri Ford became a close friend. Art critic Lee Klein would write several essays on Azank’s work.  

Miller wrote, "Roberto's work is very beautiful, resolved and poignant, particularly because the vehicle for the poignancy is the Still Life". Two paintings were kept in the artist's collection as mementos of his first gallery mentor.

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As the style developed, many US shows followed. In San Francisco Eleonore Austerer became a champion of his work as it grew more complex in scale and composition. After a decade of one man shows in San Francisco and Palm Desert a series of Lotus paintings further developed the style in a new direction, culminating most recently with the highly complex multiple flower Tulip paintings. The Tulip Orgy has been on the artist’s easel, non-stop and developing and emerging over the last 6 years. In the meantime it was exhibited 3 times, each deemed “finished” only to resume its transition once the show had ended. A series of 1001 Close-ups of Tulip Orgy is in progress, so the viewer can see each composition in its own right. They are being shown thru social media as they happened in real time. 

The San Francisco Business Times wrote: "Roberto’s canvases convey a sense of hyper-reality through his bold use of color, precise lines and controlled composition. Common objects such as flowers, fruits, vessels and candles are given new life set against the strong horizon, which divides the artist’s rich color fields. These color fields, often indescribable in hue, are the cornerstone of Azank’s work, while the still life objects act as vehicles for exploration of positive and negative space, placement and scale. He elects to omit unnecessary ornamentation from his compositions, choosing instead to emphasize the precision and draftsmanship he originally investigated in architecture school."

"Now at mid career, Roberto Azank has been described as a "metaclassical artist" whose interests lie in the abstract qualities of realism as opposed to the photographic copying of nature.”

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  Important Collections:

- Washington Convention Center, Washington D.C.

- American Express

- Sprint Telecommunications

- Bard College, Rhinebeck, NY

Studio in Greenpoint, NY. 1999.   Photo: Paul Weiner.

Selected Exhibitions:

2017 

Wired Gallery, High Falls, NY - Solo

Consulate General of Argentina, New York City - Solo

'Personal Identity Matter', Gallery MC, New York City

2015

Consulate General of Argentina, New York City - Solo

Post-EXIT - Montage of Wandering II, Gallery MC,

New York City

2011

Consulate General of Argentina, New York City - Solo

2010

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Desert, California - Solo

Mason Murer Fine Art / Besharat Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia

2009

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Desert, California - Solo

Center of the Earth Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina 

Plus One Gallery, London, England

2008

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Desert, California - Solo

Plus One Gallery, London, England  

Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia

2007

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Desert, California - Solo

Cavalier Galleries, Greenwich, Connecticut

Plus One Gallery, London, England

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Desert, California 

2006

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Desert, California - Solo

Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut - Solo

Mason Murer Fine Art, “Primavera”, Atlanta, Georgia

Cavalier Galleries, Greenwich, Nantucket, Massachusetts

Center of the Earth Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina

2005

​Plus One Gallery, London, England

Click all images to enlarge

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Desert, California - Solo

Simmons Gallery, San Francisco, California - Solo

Unison Arts Center, Retrospective, New Paltz, NY - Solo

London Art Fair, Plus One Plus Two Galleries, London, England

Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Center of the Earth Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina    

2004

 Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, Washington - Solo

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Desert, California - Solo

Center of the Earth Gallery, Charlotte, N. Carolina - Solo

Plus One Plus Two Galleries, “American Realism”, London, England.​

 Simmons Gallery, San Francisco, California - Solo

2003

London Art Fair, Plus One Plus Two Galleries, London England.

Plus One Plus Two Galleries, Art London ‘2004, London, England

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, San Francisco, California - Solo

2003

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Springs, California - Solo

Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut - Solo

Center of the Earth Gallery, Charlotte, N. Carolina - Solo

Addison-Ripley Gallery, Washington, D.C. - Solo

Vero Beach Museum of Art, “Collector’s Choice”,

Vero Beach, Florida  

 Plus One Plus Two Galleries, Art London ‘2003, London, England

Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, Washington.

Artspace / Virginia Miller Gallery, “Latin American Invitational”,

Miami, Florida

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, “Latin Diversity”,

San Francisco, California

Artspace / Virginia Miller Gallery, Arte Americas Miami ‘2003,

Miami, Florida

2002

Austerer-Crider Gallery, Palm Springs, California - Solo

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, San Francisco, California - Solo

Center of the Earth Gallery, “The New Realism”,

Charlotte, North Carolina

Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, “Still Lifes”, Kent, Connecticut

Austerer-Crider Gallery, “Flower Power”, Palm Springs, California

2001

Gomez Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland - Solo

Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut - Solo

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, San Francisco, California - Solo

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Springs Intl. Art Fair, California

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Center of the Earth Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina

Artspace / Virginia Miller Gallery, Miami, Florida

Lyons-Wier / Packer Gallery, Art Miami ‘2001, Florida

2000

Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri - Solo

Austerer-Crider Gallery, Palm Springs, California

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Springs Intl. Art Fair, California

Artspace / Virginia Miller Gallery, Miami, Florida

Center of the Earth Gallery, “The New Masters”,

Charlotte, North Carolina

Brewster Arts Limited, Art Miami ‘2000, Florida

1999

Brewster Arts Limited, New York City- Solo

Addison-Ripley Gallery, Washington, D.C. -Solo

Albert Einstein University, New York City - Solo

Eleonore Austerer Gallery, San Francisco, California 

Artspace / Viginia Miller Gallery, Miami, Florida  

Brewster Arts Limited, “Major Works”, New York City 

William Havu Gallery, Denver, Colorado

Brewster Arts Limited, Art Miami ‘99, Florida      

1998

Albert White Gallery, Toronto, Canada - Solo

Hooks-Epstein Galleries, Houston, Texas - Solo

Albers Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee - Solo

Lizan Tops Gallery, East Hampton, New York- Solo

Ramis Barquet Gallery, Art Miami ‘98, Miami, Florida

Artspace / Virginia Miller Gallery, Miami, Florida   

Brewster Arts Limited, New York City       

Meredith-Kelly Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Elite Fine Art, Miami, Florida

Mulligan-Shanoski Gallery, San Francisco, California

Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

DeArte Magick, ‘Disegno e Colore’, (cur. Lee Klein), Easton, PA

Lyons Wier Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

1997

Consulate General of Argentina, New York City - Solo

Gallery @ 425 Lexington, New York City - Solo

Ramis Barquet Gallery, Art Miami ‘97, Miami, Florida

N.Y. Arts Magazine 2nd City-Wide Biennial,

(cur. Lee Klein), New York City

1993

Art and Mathematics Conference AM 93,

SUNY Albany, New York

1992​

Gallery @ Broward Community College, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

1991

Fractal Mural, "Computers and Art" Olympia and York Gallery,

(cur. Ludwig Datene), New York City

Marcos J. Alegria School of Fine Arts, Puerto Rico - Solo

1990

Galaxy Gallery, ’Duel in the Sun’, Miami Beach, Florida