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Self-taught artist Robert Otto Epstein's paintings of celebrities copied from Google Images

The colours! The faces! There’s something incredibly charming and cute about the bold, bright, and disarmingly cheerful paintings of Robert Otto Epstein.

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Portrait of a woman with dark hair and glasses wearing a red and blue patterned top against a bright green background

Each portrait is based on an image found by a simple Google search of celebrities, models and NBA basketball stars, rendering the portrait in a simple, flat style with a focus on areas of pattern. The charm in the faces lies in their sparseness: mouths, noses and eyes are reduced to the most minimal components.

Though he draws so directly from his subject matter, Epstein delights in reinventing his subjects as he sees fit: he gives them entirely new outfits, backdrops and colouring to mix nostalgia with newness in each portrait.

Brooklyn-based Epstein studied philosophy and political science at the University of Pittsburgh and law at the University of Durham before moving into painting, having taught himself rather than going through the formal art institution trajectory. He’s since shown his work at a wide range of galleries across the world, including The Drawing Center in New York, The University of Hawaii and Belgium’s Voorkamer Gallery.

A series of his works will be shown at VOLTA NY, which will take place at Pier 90 from March 1 – 5 as part of Armory Arts Week.

Portrait of a person wearing a blue headwrap and striped garment, surrounded by colourful checkerboard patterns in Robert Otto Epstein's signature flat style
A stylised portrait of a figure with a bright blue face and body, orange-red hair, and a colourful radiating striped pattern across the torso in red, yellow, green, blue and pink
Portrait of a woman with blue hair and yellow cat-eye sunglasses wearing a bold yellow and black polka dot top against a colourful checkered background
Portrait of a woman with long magenta hair wearing a colourful chevron-patterned bikini against a pixelated background of bright blocks in blue, red, yellow and green
Stylised portrait of an NBA basketball player with turquoise skin, orange headband and minimal facial features, wearing a New York Knicks jersey against a pink background
Stylised portrait of an NBA player in a Chicago Bulls jersey number 1, with turquoise skin, red hair and facial features against a bright yellow background
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