Robin Crofut-Brittingham

Robin Crofut-Brittingham is a multidisciplinary artist and writer based in Montreal, Canada. Her work focuses on the creation of real and imagined worlds, inspired by nature. She was the recipient of the Murphy Cadogan Award from the San Francisco Foundation and a Martha Boschen Porter Award through the Berkshire Taconic Foundation. Her work has been featured in Novella, Frankie, My Modern Met, Hi Fructose, and on Booooooom, among others, and has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the US and Canada.

The Illuminated Book of Birds, the first in a forthcoming series of nature books written and illustrated by the artist, will be published in 2025 by Hachette through Timber Press.


Artist Statement

Drawing inspiration from mythology, current events, science fiction, folklore, and personal history, my most recent work grows from my continued fascination with the relationship between humans, animals, and the natural world. In this contemporary moment, when we seem constantly on the precipice of some unknown future, I use my paintings to create fantasy worlds where I can reflect on the contradictions of modern life. I am interested in the places where these contradictions collide—the crossroads of the ominous and the humorous, the beautiful and the ugly, the present and the future.

In much of classical mythology and folklore, nighttime is a moment for transformation and change. At night, rituals are performed, boundaries are transgressed, and metamorphoses take place. For this exhibition, I was inspired by this time of change and by the idea of things being disrupted and transformed by nature and their environment.

From the Middle Ages onward, three-panel triptychs were a popular form for illustrating and communicating religious beliefs. They could be used as altarpieces for devotional purposes and could easily be transported to share religious ideas and iconography. I am interested in using this form and its history to make my own irreverent narratives with my own imaginary iconography and symbolism as a way to subvert this historical, reverential use of the format.


Visit Robin Crofut-Brittingham’s website