John Roberts And The
Darkness Has Not
Overcome It
Sally s Snakerama Station, 2023
oil and acrylic on birch
48x36
Middle Fork Devil, 2023
oil and acrylic on birch
36x60
I always tell the story of my life in my paintings. I tell the truth as I know it.
Sometimes the story comes from what surrounds me and other times it's something that only exists in my mind or in my soul. These paintings represent both.
The F*cking Greatest American Hero, 2024 oil and acrylic on panel 20x40
1307 S. White Station Rd 2024
and acrylic on panel
With these works, I intend to narrate the story of four generations of my mother's family and how the first generation effects the last. It is the story of good versus evil, a celebration of light overcoming darkness and the resilience of the human spirit.
at Damsite, 2024
on panel
Day
I Would Have Called You Grandfather,
I have been transparent about the darkness that overshadows the beginning, if only in symbols and in faces. With each successive generation, the healing and life that come through time, forgiveness, and reconciliation grow until
what is evil is powerless. It seeks shelter from the light, but fails to find it.
And the Darkness Has Not Overcome It, 2024
oil on panel 72x96
Burial at Wade Chapel, 2024 oil and acrylic on panel 18x24
John Roberts was born in Memphis in 1974, and grew up in Searcy, Arkansas. He received his BFA from Harding University, and MFA from the University of Arkansas.
This summer his work is featured in the Delta Triennial at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, the summer exhibition at Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York, and in Reckon at the University of Tennessee at Martin museum. Roberts and his family live on the family farm outside of Sharon, Tennessee.