Robert Montgomery

Scottish-born, London-based sculptor and poet Robert Montgomery is known for his site-specific installations, which he often creates out of light and text. With these works, Montgomery addresses all-encompassing, universal themes such as power, love, and human kindness in electric light—or, dramatically, even fire. The sparse words affirm his personal and philosophical beliefs, which he categorizes as “melancholic post-Situationist,” a 20th-century antiauthoritarian Marxist movement. Describing future utopias, Montgomery's large-scale format puts in mind the installations and scrolling messages by conceptualist Jenny Holzer. Like her, Montgomery often stages interventions in the public sphere. His monumental poems mimic billboards and appear amid industrial sites, acting as unexpected lyrical ruminations on contemporary life. 

Montgomery’s work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (where he was formerly an artist-in-residence), as well as at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and in numerous public parks across Europe and the United States.