Press Release - Beneath a Canopy of Crystal Songs by Joe Roberts
Beneath a Canopy of Crystal Songs
a solo exhibition by
Joe Roberts
Opening Reception
June 6, 2026 at 6pm
pt.2
1525b Webster St.
Oakland, CA
To receive a preview contact
info@part2gallery.com
For his first solo exhibition with pt. 2 Gallery, Joe Roberts presents Beneath a Canopy of Crystal Songs, a new body of paintings that marks his first focused presentation of oil works. Known for a practice that moves between drawing, collage, found-object construction, and painting, Roberts approaches oil paint with the same instinctive and experimental energy that runs throughout his broader body of work.
These paintings are rooted in images and experiences connected to nighttime DMT trips, often beginning with familiar spaces like Roberts’ backyard or surrounding landscape. Though grounded in these immediate environments, the scenes expand into dense, sprawling forests and fields that feel far larger and more immersive than their point of origin. Grass, flowers, stars, and deep blue night skies repeat throughout the works, building landscapes that shift between observation and hallucination.
In many of the paintings, forms begin to mirror and duplicate themselves. Patterns in the grass and plant life take on a loose symmetry, creating kaleidoscopic repetitions that slowly reveal hidden faces and figures within the landscape. Elsewhere, stars and points of light vibrate and expand outward through tracer-like effects, blurring the boundary between the physical environment and psychological perception.
Working without formal training as a painter, Roberts allows images to emerge through repetition, layering, and revision rather than strict planning. Moving into oil paint opened up new possibilities in texture, color, and density that felt limited in acrylic alone. The surfaces of the works build slowly, accumulating marks, gestures, and fragments of imagery over time.
Though the paintings draw from personal rituals and altered states, the work stays grounded in observation and Roberts’ immediate surroundings. The repeated use of blue, nighttime settings, and mirrored forms creates the sense that something psychological is unfolding just beneath the surface of the image. At the same time, the work has also been shaped by parenthood and the experience of making art alongside his children, allowing for a greater openness to play, intuition, and unexpected connections.