Exhibition

Tabor RobakBroken Printer

Presented by
SOLOS

We are thrilled to announce Tabor Robak’s Broken Printer, our latest release from Verse Solos, curated by Nico Epstein, a curator, art historian, and contemporary art advisor. Robak’s works are featured in museums such as the MoMA, the Whitney, the Met, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the AKG, among many others. With over 13 years of creating and exhibiting generative artworks, his career spans more than 100 exhibitions in 23 countries.

Broken Printer draws inspiration from the evolution of printing technology, exploring the beauty in its imperfections and the cultural impact of design tools. Robak delves into the quirks of letterpress, screen printing, CMYK halftone, inkjets, and laser printers, creating a captivating blend of historical printing techniques and digital artistry. The exhibition, an ode to graphic design and the spirit of desktop publishing, reflects Robak's fascination with the aesthetics of printer test sheets and the flawless world promised and promoted by today’s advertising. It challenges viewers to reconsider the pursuit of perfection through technology, highlighting the beauty in inevitable flaws and our shared human condition.

‘Working in a copy shop as a kid, I was enthralled by the CMYK registrations in the margins—breaking the fourth wall between the artwork and its creation. I loved to play with the software just for the sake of it, designing my own logo, a glossy wooden yin-yang branded 'Tabor Unlimited'.’

– Tabor Robak

Broken Printer, 2024, Output preview

The development of Broken Printer began with the objective of creating a generator for printer calibration pages and soon evolved into a mission to replicate all the fundamental features of an early version of Photoshop in code: infinite layers with layer styles, masking, drop shadows, filters, page layout guides, a brush system, levels, and color adjustments, along with libraries for fonts and clip art. Except now, each and every feature unfurls the infinity of outcomes and surprises of procedural generation.

‘I want to capture the carefree spirit of creating in ignorance of the tool's capability, of sharing garish designs on message boards, and the naughty thrill of cracking Photoshop, enhanced by the cool aesthetics of warez group releases.’

– Tabor Robak

There was a period, perhaps two decades ago, when printing was notoriously frustrating— always “spooling,” always “jammed,” always banding and out of ink. Embracing these errors introduces abstraction into the otherwise orderly world of advertising and perceived perfection, expressing our inner states: our metaphorical streaked family photos, hastily written essays printed with spelling errors, and photocopied missing cat flyers. In this context, 'broken' is not a flaw but a significant feature of our shared cultural and communicative experience.

This Verse Solo coincides with Tabor Robak’s exhibition, IMPACT which opened March 7 at Super Dakota, Brussels. It will remain open until April 13.

Artist

Tabor Robak

Tabor Robak is an American digital artist, renowned in the field of new media, currently based in Paris. He began his digital art career at age 13 as a Photoshop editor and later obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Robak's career progressed in New York City, where he participated in group shows at MoMA PS1 and the Lyon Biennale, leading to his first solo...

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Curator