Tabor Robak

born in Portland, 1986. Lives and works in New York.

(left) Tabor Robak and (right) Jen Liu Colorwheel, Tabor Robak (2017) at Behind The Screens at Museum CODA Tabcorp, Tabor Robak (2022) at Super Dakota FlatEarth.io (2019), 4K generative animation, custom PC, original software, dimensions variable, infinite duration. In the exhibition FlatEarth.io at Upstream Gallery. Photo by Gert Jan van Rooij. Cheap-O-Zest, 2019, UV printed led lightbox, powder coated aluminum frame, 81.3 x 203.2 x 12.7 cm. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. Northstar (2019), 4K generative animation, custom PC, original software, dimensions variable, infinite duration. In the exhibition FlatEarth.io at Upstream Gallery. Photo by Gert Jan van Rooij. FlatEarth.io (2019), 4K generative animation, custom PC, original software, dimensions variable, infinite duration. In the exhibition FlatEarth.io at Upstream Gallery. Photo by Gert Jan van Rooij. Vatican Vibes (2011), 4K generative animation, custom PC, original software, dimensions variable, infinite duration. In the exhibition FlatEarth.io at Upstream Gallery. Photo by Gert Jan van Rooij. WHERE'S MY WATER? at Fake Shrimp exhibition at Team Gallery, New York Blossom (2018) in the group exhibition Live and Let Live at Upstream Gallery. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. LIQUID DEMO presented on the Barclays Center "Oculus" display, Brooklyn, NY. A one-of-a-kind, 3,000 square foot, 360-degree LED marquee. Where's My Water? (2015) at Yuz Museum Shanghai | China SUNDIAL at MICROSOFT CULTURE WALL, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
40 foot video wall on Fifth Avenue. Blossom (2018) generative animation on custom-built computer. In the group exhibition Live and Let Live at Upstream Gallery. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. A*   SCREEN PEEKING at Human/Digital: A Symbiotic Love Affair
KUNSTHAL ROTTERDAM, ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS Mind Map (2017) generative animation on custom-built computer. In the group exhibition Live and Let Live at Upstream Gallery. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. Mind Map (2017) in the group exhibition Live and Let Live at Upstream Gallery. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. Tabor Robak, 20XX, 2013.
Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. Tabor Robak, 20XX, 2013.
Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij.
Tabor Robak
  • Biography
  • Exhibitions
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Biography

Tabor Robak’s work employs computer generated imaging to create videos of invented worlds. Working in programs including Unity, After Effects, Photoshop and Cinema 4D, the artist explores a secondary, digital reality, rendered in what he refers to as a “Photoshop tutorial aesthetic” or a “desktop screensaver aesthetic.” His meticulously produced and filmed environments are cobbled together from sources both sampled and hand-modeled. The works are appropriative, both in their subject matter and aesthetic, using elements purchased and then edited for his purposes. They adopt the visual vocabulary of contemporary video games in order to isolate and comment upon digital space as an abstract fact, while simultaneously pushing up against the increasingly tenuous separation between perceptions of the digital and the real.

Tabor Robak is based in Paris, France. Selected (group) exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;  Serpentine Galleries, London; the 12th Lyon Biennale; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; MoMA: PS1, New York; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; Palazzo delle Esponizioni, Rome; Kunsthal Rotterdam and Upstream Gallery Amsterdam. His work is included in numerous public and private collections, including those of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens; The Hugo Brown Family Collection, The Hague; KRC Collection, Amsterdam; Fondazione Sandretto re Rebaudengo, Turin;  Migros Museum, Zurich; and the Yuz Collection, Shanghai. The work of Tabor Robak has been reviewed in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, Artforum, Art Observed, Modern Painters, Interview and Mousse.

Artist's website 

Artist's Instagram 

Exhibitions

Mixed Feelings

1 Jul - 5 Aug '23

Liquid Life at Super Dakota

8 Sep - 10 Oct '22

PLay - Video Game Art and Beyond

22 Jul '22 - 15 Jan '23

REFLECTIONS BEYOND THE SURFACE

1 Jun - 15 Oct '21

WORLD ON A WIRE

7 May - 8 Aug '21

Focus Group

16 Nov '19 - 11 Jan '20

FlatEarth.io

31 Aug - 5 Oct '19

Crossing the Border

16 May - 19 May '19

Mental

6 Apr - 25 May '19

I Was Raised on the Internet

23 Jun - 14 Oct '18

Live and Let Live

2 Jun - 14 Jul '18

Quantaspectra

4 May - 3 Jun '17

Botanica

13 Jul - 29 Aug '17

UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA

22 Mar - 21 Aug '17

Sunflower Seed

26 May - 9 Jul '16

Drinking Bird Seasons

1 Oct '15 - 2 Jun '16

ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTURE

16 Oct '15 - 17 Jan '16

Fake Shrimp

3 May - 21 Jun '15

LIKENEWLANDSCAPE

13 Sep - 19 Oct '14

Shifting Optics

6 Sep - 11 Oct '14

The St. Petersburg Paradox

28 May - 17 Aug '14

SMART NEW WORLD

5 Apr - 10 Sep '14

Next-Gen Open Beta

24 Nov '13 - 12 Jan '14

Empire State

17 Nov '13 - 15 Feb '14

Cherry Picking

31 Jan - 9 Mar '13

In That Weird Age

26 Jan - 24 Feb '13

Black Cake

10 Jan - 17 Feb '13

Inside The Banana

25 Jul - 22 Sep '12

Read/Write

17 Mar - 30 Mar '11

Downloads

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