Born in 1972 in Chapelhall Scotland, Robert Montgomery brings a poetic voice to the tradition of contemporary text art. The artist currently lives and works in London, and is renowned for his large, public light installations and distinctive black and white billboard artworks.

Montgomery’s work engages with the urban world through his translucent poetry, taking a direct approach to universal themes such as power and love, expressing his views on contemporary life and affirming his personal and philosophical beliefs.

The artist’s installation of “THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE BECOME GHOSTS INSIDE OF YOU, AND LIKE THIS YOU KEEP THEM ALIVE”, at the De La Warr Pavilion in 2010, became one of the most talked about artworks of the last decade, with its image shared more than 24 million times online. Montgomery was a shortlisted finalist for the UK National Holocaust Memorial in 2017 with the scheme exhibited at the V&A Museum in London, and recently had a solo show at the Aspen Art Museum in January 2019.

Writing in the Black and Blue Literary Journal, Dane Weatherman states; “To encounter the work of Robert Montgomery is to make a tender encounter whose tenderness is enhanced by the public, communal quality of his work. To encounter his work is to have your body filled with a sad thunder and your head filled with a sad light. He is a complete artist and works in language, light, paper, space. He engages completely with the urban world with a translucent poetry. His work arrives at us through a kind of lucid social violence. No one has blended language, form and light in such a direct way.”

Artist CV