Robert Bunkin
The Sculpture Series

Mbembe Head

Membe Head II, Flashe on canvas, 26 x 30 inches, 2015

Robert Bunkin is a figurative painter who has shown in galleries and museums in New York, nationally, and Italy.

He earned his BS in Art from the CUNY BA/BS Program, during which he studied with Philip Pearlstein and an MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University where he studied with Leon Golub and Joan Semmel among others. In 2000 he attended Leonetto Tintori’s Laboratory for Buon Fresco in Vainella Italy.

He has taught art history at Parsons School of Design, and both studio and art history at Wagner College and Borough of Manhattan Community College. He was a member of The Painting Center, NYC.

He has worked as an independent curator, organizing exhibitions on contemporary fresco painting, portraiture and self-portraiture and other topics. As the Art Curator at the Staten Island Museum, since 2011, he organized the inaugural exhibitions at the Museum’s new building at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in 2015.

The Sculpture Series is an on-going exploration of figurative sculptures that I select for the life they embody. As a painter engaged with portraiture as my primary subject, I find these sculptures as compelling as working for the life. Works come from diverse cultures and eras, and are made from marble, clay, wood and metal.