Robert Montgomery Scottish, b. 1972

Robert Montgomery is a Scottish-born, London-based contemporary artist and poet. He is renowned for his large-scale light works using words and poetry installed in public spaces. As well as his evocative light poems, which use environmentally friendly LED lights, he is well known for his billboard poems, fire poems, woodcuts, paintings and watercolours. Exploring how the constant flood of images in the modern world has alienated us from our authentic voice, his works explore political and ecological themes, with particular focus on the tension between the digital and natural world. The distinctly lyrical voice of his visual poetry invites us to reconnect with nature, offering a moment of pause and introspection.

Montgomery studied at Edinburgh College of Art, completing a BA and an MFA. Initially focusing on painting, he soon moved into text and installation works, with his practice developing during his time as the Artist-in-Residence at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1995-97). He has been a visiting artist at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, University of Newcastle and Chelsea College of Art, London.

Montgomery began to make light works after the American artist James Turrell, pioneer of the Light and Space movement, visited his studio at the MFAH museum in Houston in the 1990s. He has also credited the works of Jenny Holzer and Lawrence Weiner as influences; conceptual artists who also traverse the boundary between visual art and the written word. His interest in text-based art developed in the library of Edinburgh College of Art, where he engaged with the critical theory of Jean Baudrillard, Roland Barthes and Situationist Guy Debord.