{{short description|British artist, writer, and musician}} {{EngvarB|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} {{Infobox person | image = Bob and Roberta Smith (34077811670).jpg | caption = Brill in 2017 | birth_name = Patrick Brill | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1963 }} | birth_place = Reading, Berkshire, England | death_date = | death_place = | other_names = | known_for = | education = University of Reading<br>Goldsmiths College | employer = | occupation = Artist | title = | height = | spouse = Jessica Voorsanger | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = }} '''Patrick Brill''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE|RA}} (born 1963), better known by his pseudonym '''Bob and Roberta Smith''', is a British contemporary artist, writer, author, musician, art education advocate, and keynote speaker. He is known for his "slogan" art, is an associate professor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University and has curated public art projects such as ''Art U Need''. He was curator for the 2006 ''Peace Camp'' and created the 2013 ''Art Party'' to promote contemporary art and advocacy. His works have been exhibited and are in collections in Europe and the United States. Brill co-founded The Ken Ardley Playboys and hosts the ''Make Your Own Damn Music'' radio show.
==Life and work== Patrick Brill is the son of landscape painter Frederick Brill (1920–1984), head of the Chelsea Art School from 1965 to 1979, and his wife, the artist Deirdre Borlase.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jul/30/deirdre-borlase-obituary|title=Deirdre Borlase obituary|date=30 July 2018|author=Bob and Roberta Smith|author-link=Bob and Roberta Smith|work=The Guardian|access-date=6 June 2020}}</ref> He has a sister who is a psychiatric nurse, Roberta.<ref name="Barber">{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/apr/27/art2 | title=Some day his plinth will come | work=The Observer | date=26 April 2008 | access-date=4 January 2014 | author=Lynn Barber| author-link=Lynn Barber }}</ref> He graduated from the University of Reading<ref name="Cass biography" /><ref>{{cite web | url=https://artuk.org/discover/artists/brill-frederick-19201984 | title=Frederick Brill | publisher=Art UK | access-date=4 January 2014}}</ref> and received a scholarship during that time to The British School at Rome.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.roeandmoore.co.uk/SMITHBobandRoberta.asp?Cat=SMITH,%20Bob%20and%20Roberta | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140105071009/http://www.roeandmoore.co.uk/SMITHBobandRoberta.asp?Cat=SMITH,%20Bob%20and%20Roberta | url-status=dead | archive-date=5 January 2014 | title=Smith, Bob and Roberta | publisher=Roe and Moore | access-date=4 January 2014 }}</ref> He then obtained his Master of Arts at Goldsmiths College, London.<ref name="Cass biography" /><ref name="Guardian Week 55" />
Brill is married to fellow artist and Goldsmiths College alumna, Jessica Voorsanger,<ref name="Guardian Week 55">{{cite news | work=The Guardian |title=Artist of the Week 55: Jessica Voorsanger | url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/aug/26/artist-jessica-voorsanger | access-date=3 January 2014 | author=Jessica Lack | date=26 August 2009 }}</ref> also a contemporary artist and lecturer.
Brill was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to the arts.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=61803|supp=y|page=N10|date=31 December 2016}}</ref>
==Careers==
===Art=== [[File:Cab Exterior - 'TAXY' Bob & Roberta Smith.jpg|thumb|''Taxy'' (1999) by Bob and Roberta Smith, a work from the Cab Gallery]] Brill is commonly known as Bob and Roberta Smith in his artistic career.<ref name="Cass biography" /> The pseudonym has been retained from the short lived period when he worked with his sister Roberta.<ref>{{cite web|author=Matilda Battersby |title=Inside the artist's studio: Bob & Roberta Smith. One man, two names, a lot of words|work=The Independent Culture|publisher=Independent| date=24 February 2012|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/inside-the-artist-s-studio-bob-roberta-smith-7440389.html|access-date=17 November 2016}}</ref>
Smith paints slogans in a brightly coloured lettering style on banners and discarded boards of wood and exhibits them in galleries of contemporary art across the world. The slogans are usually humorous musing on art, politics, popular culture, Britain and the world in general and they often support his activist campaigns, such as his 2002 amnesty on bad art at Pierogi Gallery, New York.<ref name="Pierogi 2000">{{ cite web |url=http://www.pierogi2000.com/flatfile/smithbob.html |title=Bob and Roberta Smith |publisher=Pierogi Gallery |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060416085144/http://www.pierogi2000.com/flatfile/smithbob.html |archive-date=16 April 2006 |df=dmy }}</ref>
Noted for sign painting, Smith also makes sculpture using cement, as in his 2005 Cement Soup Kitchen at Beaconsfield Gallery, London.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.beaconsfield.ltd.uk/chronic_epoch.html | title=Chronic Epoch | publisher=Beaconsfield Gallery | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720090548/http://www.beaconsfield.ltd.uk/chronic_epoch.html | archive-date=20 July 2006 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> A sculpture he proposed was shortlisted for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London.<ref name="Fourth Plinth">{{cite web |title=Fourth Plinth |url=http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/fourthplinth/default.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080303204838/http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/fourthplinth/default.htm |archive-date=3 March 2008 |access-date=12 March 2008 |publisher=The National Gallery}}</ref>
{{Quotation|[Smith] grew attracted to postures of amateurism and failure. His more recent work has suggested an interest in the utopian impulse of art as an agent for social change, although this often seems hedged with doubt or irony|Morgan Falconer<ref>{{cite web | author=Morgan Falconer | title=Bob and Roberta Smith | work=Grove Art Online | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2 October 2006 | url=http://www.groveart.com/ | access-date=10 February 2006 | archive-date=21 August 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821130425/http://www.groveart.com./ | url-status=dead }}</ref>}}
In March 2005, he was commissioned to curate a series of five public art projects in the Thames Gateway housing estates of Essex. The projects were collectively named ''Art U Need'' and were documented in a diary-format book by Smith in 2007.<ref name="Barber"/><ref>Smith, Bob and Roberta. 2007. ''Art U Need: My Part in the Public Art Revolution'' London: Black Dog Publishing</ref> Writing of a launch event in "glittering Notting Hill Gate" (i.e. in fashionable and central Kensington), Lynn Barber said of Smith: "It was a startlingly unsuitable subject for such a glossy audience, but he held them spellbound. I see him as a sort of Ian Dury of the art world, someone who keeps on trucking, doing his own thing, making absolutely no concessions to fashion or marketability, but generally giving pleasure to everyone who comes across him."<ref name="Barber"/>
A feature documentary about the work of Bob and Roberta Smith, ''Make Your Own Damn Art: the world of Bob and Roberta Smith'', directed by John Rogers, premiered at the East End Film Festival in 2012.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2387521/ | title=Make Your Own Damn Art: The World of Bob and Roberta Smith | publisher=IMDb | access-date=4 January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://artisticactivism.org/2013/06/make-your-own-damn-art-bob-and-roberta-smith-documentary-trailer-youtube/| title=Make Your Own Damn Art: The World of Bob and Roberta Smith | date=3 June 2013 | publisher= Center for Artistic Activism | access-date=4 January 2014}}</ref>
In 2013, he was on the Museum of the Year selection panel. He is on the Tate board as an artist member.<ref name="Cass biography"/>
In October 2021, Brill contributed to World Wildlife Fund's campaign, Art For Your World.
===Speaker, writer and advocate=== He has spoken as an advocate for art education and the arts and has been a keynote speaker at symposia and conferences.<ref name="Cass biography" /> A recent example of his gift for merging art and politics was illustrated in the 2006 exhibition, "Peace Camp." Smith took part in and curated the show held at The Brick Lane Gallery that explored artists' perceptions of peace. Gavin Turk, Wolfgang Tillmans, and more than 100 other artists were featured.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/culture-now-bob-roberta-smith | title=Culture Now: Bob & Roberta Smith | publisher=Institute of Contemporary Arts | date=11 January 2013 | access-date=4 January 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140105054113/https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/culture-now-bob-roberta-smith | archive-date=5 January 2014 | url-status=usurped }}</ref> He created a project, the Art Party, in 2013 to make contemporary art more accessible, demonstrate its ability to influence meaningful conversation and political thought. It was launched at the Pierogi Gallery in New York and at the Hales Gallery. An Arts Council sponsored a two-day conference at Crescent Arts in North Yorkshire that year. It brought more than 2000 people who attended discussions of art education in schools and lectures, listened to music and attended performances.<ref name="Cass biography" />
Brill writes for ''The Guardian''.<ref name="Cass biography" />
===Educator=== Brill is an associate professor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University, teaching undergraduate and post-graduate students. He leads the Master of Fine Arts programme, researches and co-leads with Oriana Fox of the Public Acts studio, and tutors in fine art.<ref name="Cass biography">{{cite web | url=http://www.thecass.com/people/s/bob-and-roberta-smith | title=Patrick Brill (aka Bob and Roberta Smith) | publisher=London Metropolitan University & Cass Department of Art | access-date=4 January 2014 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310014429/http://www.thecass.com/people/s/bob-and-roberta-smith | archive-date=10 March 2013 | df=dmy-all }}</ref>
===Musician=== Brill performs music, often with a group he co-founded, The Ken Ardley Playboys,<ref name="Cass biography"/> who had their first 45 released by Billy Childish on his label Hangman Records. Brill hosts The Bob & Roberta Smith Radio Show called ''Make Your Own Damn Music'' on Resonance FM.<ref name="Cass biography" /><ref>{{cite web | url=http://resonancefm.com/archives/519 | title=Make Your Own Damn Music on Your Damn Radio | work=Resonance104.4fm | date=7 November 2008 | access-date=4 January 2014 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140105054645/http://resonancefm.com/archives/519 | archive-date=5 January 2014 | df=dmy-all }}</ref>
===2015 election=== Brill stood in the Surrey Heath constituency in the 2015 general election, under his working name, Bob and Roberta Smith.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=Nick |title=Artist will run against Gove at the election on culture platform |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/bob-and-roberta-smith-will-run-against-michael-gove-at-the-election-on-culture-platform-9901397.html |access-date=2 August 2022 |work=The Independent |date=3 December 2014 |language=en}}</ref> He won the fewest votes in the constituency, receiving 273 votes (0.5%) and losing his deposit.<ref>{{cite web |title=2015 general election results - Surrey Heath |url=https://electionresults.parliament.uk/election/2015-05-07/Results/Location/Constituency/Surrey%20Heath/ |website=UK Parliament |access-date=2 August 2022}}</ref> The seat was won by incumbent MP Michael Gove.
== Collections == * Arts Council Collection, London * British Council, London * Goss Michael Foundation, Dallas, Texas * Sammlung Fiede, Aschaffenburg, Germany * Southampton City Museum & Art Gallery, Southampton, England * Tate Collection, London * The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall, UK
==Published works== ;Author * {{cite book|title=Art u need: my part in the public art revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSxKAQAAIAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Black Dog Publishing|isbn=978-1-906155-16-2}} * {{cite book|title=Hearing Voices, Seeing Things: A Serpentine Gallery Project : Seven Artists' Projects Exploring Mental Health|year=2006|publisher=Serpentine Gallery|isbn=978-1-905190-09-6}} * {{cite book|title=Hijack Reality: Deptford X: A 'How To' Guide to Organize a Really Top Notch Art Festival|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DLrAAAAMAAJ|date=1 July 2009|publisher=C. T. Editions|isbn=978-0-9547071-2-5}} * {{cite book|year=2004|title=Make Your Own Damn Art|location=London | publisher=Black Dog Publishing }} * {{cite book|title=We Spy USA|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NAd4HAAACAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Purgatory Pie Press}} ;Co-author * {{cite book|author1=Matthew Collings|author2=Bob Smith |author3=Roberta Smith |others=Victor Mount and Chisenhale Gallery, London|title=Dont Hate Sculpt: Bob and Roberta Smith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nucGPAAACAAJ|year=1997|publisher=Chisenhale Gallery|isbn=978-1-901066-04-3}} * {{cite book|author1=Bob and Roberta Smith|author2=Esther K. Smith|author3=Dikko Faust|title=The Archipelago of the Disunited States Showing the Soho Seas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SXjTcQAACAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Purgatory Pie Press}} * {{cite book|author1=Billy Childish|author2=Peter Doig|author3=Matthew Higgs |author4=Paul Noble |others=James Pyman, Bob and Roberta Smith|title=This Purile Thing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GejmSAAACAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Imprint 93}}
==See also== *Roberta Smith, American art critic
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * [http://www.bobandrobertasmith.co.uk/ The Official Bob and Roberta Smith Website] * Gerhard Bissell, [https://www.degruyter.com/view/AKL/_42171561?rskey=nhVAl3&result=1&dbq_0=brill%2C+patrick&dbf_0=akl-name&dbt_0=name&o_0=AND ''Brill, Patrick''], in: ''Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon (Artists of the World)'', Suppl. IV, Saur, Munich 2010, from p. 3 (in German). * {{Art UK bio}} * [http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2008/04/art-space-talk-bob-smith.html Interview with Myartspace] * [http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/full/person.html&_IXTRAIL_=Academicians&person=26105 Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections] * [https://www.riseart.com/artist/121664/bob-and-roberta-smith/art/ Bob and Roberta Smith for WWF Art For Your World] * [https://www.thecampus.site/bob-robert-smith/ Bob and Roberta Smith record release on TheCampus Label (2019)]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Bob and Roberta}} Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of the University of Reading Category:Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Category:Artists from Reading, Berkshire Category:English contemporary artists Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Pseudonymous artists Category:Royal Academicians