In Charlie Roberts’ work Jungle Boogie, we see a female figure in a motley fantasy world of jagged waves with a myriad of creatures crowded in, leaving no empty space. There are fish, starfish, fantasy creatures, a salamander, jester hats and three faces/masks with horned foreheads or noses poking their heads inside the frame. The work is full of movement and painted in vivid greens, blues and purples. The surfing woman in shorts on the verdigris-colored surfboard positions herself in the artist’s series of studies of women and, like the other elements of the work, her long, wavy neck and arms contorting through the colorful plane of the work imbue her with an ornamental function.
The motif is reminiscent of both Marc Chagall’s dreamy fantasy universes, Henri Matisse’s dancers and even of Byzantine and Egyptian works. Yet neither content nor references communicate heavily laden symbols. The artist’s ambition is to create a light and playfully magical world.
b. 1983 in Kansas, lives and works in Oslo, Norway as well as in New York and Los Angeles.
