Ro Robertson

Ro Robertson (they/them) (b. 1984, Sunderland, UK) is a contemporary artist based in West Cornwall. Robertson’s practice spans sculpture, drawing, painting and video, mediums through which they explore the boundaries of the human body and its environment.

Robertson works site specifically, often outdoors, with a multi-sensory focus on the body in the landscape. Unity between the material of the natural landscape and the body reclaims a space for LGBTQ+ identity against a history of being deemed ‘against nature’. Physical explorations of the natural landscape feed into ‘automatic’ abstract drawings and short mediative video works. Robertson’s large-scale sculptures embed the fluidity of this cyclical practice into rigid and industrial materials such as Corten steel and marine paint, materials that bridge their family heritage of ship building and their sculptural practice.

Robertson's collective body of welded abstract steel sculptures, Interlude II, is included in the group show Forbidden Territories: 100 Years of Surreal Landscapes at The Hepworth Wakefield until April 2025 and touring to The Box, Plymouth and Museum Arnhem, Netherlands later this year. Modern Thresholds: Ro Robertson, a site-responsive display of drawing and sculpture is also currently on view at Tate St Ives until December 2025. Robertson’s public sculpture Drench, inspired by the energy of the tidal zone, was exhibited in Regent’s Park, London as part of Frieze Sculpture 2022 and is now on view at the Sainsbury Centre’s Sculpture Park. Robertson’s first public sculpture Stone (Butch) was installed at London’s iconic Gherkin skyscraper 2021-22, commissioned for the 10th edition of ‘Sculpture in the City’. Stone (Butch) is now installed at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, where is it part of the permanent collection. Past solo presentations include Torsos, Maximillian William, London and Subterrane, Maximillian William, London. Past group exhibitions include Dreaming of Home at The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York curated by Gemma Rolls-Bentley; WINK WINK, Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery, Rossendale; We Are Floating In Space, Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange, Newlyn / Penzance; TRICKSTER FIGURES: sculpture and the body curated by Jes Fernie at MK Gallery, Milton Keynes; Behind abstract forms, Fragment, New York; On Queer Ground, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield; Seen, Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange; Into Abstraction, The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield and Exploratory Drawings, Maximillian William, London. Works by Robertson are also held in the collection of the British Museum, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, The Hepworth Wakefield and Leeds Museums & Galleries (Leeds Art Gallery). In 2025 Wakefield Council will unveil a newly commissioned monumental, site-specific work by Ro Robertson following four public sculpture commissions in Wakefield city by leading British artists.

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