Biography
Rob Keller (b. 1981) is an artist primarily focusing on sculpture. Now based in Berlin, he was born and raised in rural Illinois but has lived outside the US for almost seventeen years.
Rob grew up drawing, painting, and sculpting, but while at the University of Illinois, he also became passionate about graphic design. He graduated with dual Bachelor’s degrees in Ceramics and Graphic Design before discovering the extremely niche field of type design. In 2006 he moved to England to pursue an MA in Typeface Design and that experience then led him to Berlin where he founded the type design studio Mota Italic in 2008.
The realities of running a creative business relegated his artistic practice to a hobby status for many years. But in 2020, while locked in a tiny Mumbai apartment for the first six months of the pandemic, Rob had the opportunity to focus on art again. Since then, he splits his time between type and sculpture while transitioning to a life of full-time art making.
Artist Statement
I’ve always been more drawn to folk art and ordinary handmade objects than to the contemporary art world. They carry traces of real lives: materials that have been touched, repaired, and reused. Shaped by growing up in the Midwest, years of travel and living abroad, and now life in Berlin, I explore how memory and distance twist nostalgia and the feeling of “home” into something both familiar and a little strange.
I’m currently fascinated by traditional American weathervanes. I reinterpret these old decorative instruments in two ways: small 3D sculptures and large 2D wall pieces. Whether it’s a 20 cm barn built from discarded packaging or a two-meter pixelated animal made of tens of thousands of beads, these peculiar, abstracted weathervanes preserve a once-common relic that has nearly disappeared.
The 3D works divide the viewer’s attention between curious buildings and surreally oversized weathervanes. (As a child I wanted to be an architect, but this is as close as I’ve come.) The wall pieces focus purely on the weathervane itself, presented much like the antiques now found in museum collections. Mine, however, are vibrant animal abstractions that distort familiar forms and evoke retro video games and childhood simplicity.
My process is slow and iterative. I build up surfaces that are unmistakably handmade and imperfect, yet somehow feel complete to me. Through many rounds of cutting, layering, and painting, the original materials become ambiguous, their origins disguised beneath new textures. The bumps, drips, and wobbles are softened into deliberate irregularities that avoid sharp edges or strict alignments, resulting in objects that feel refined but still human.
This approach contrasts sharply with my parallel career designing fonts with extreme digital precision. Creating simple, imperfect objects by hand helps me stay grounded amid an increasingly complicated world. It is a personal search for clarity and meaning through imperfect exploration.
CV
Education
2007 Master of Arts in Typeface Design
University of Reading; Reading, England
2006 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Crafts – (Ceramics)
University of Illinois; Champaign, IL
2003 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design
University of Illinois; Champaign, IL
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 Pixeltierwetterfahnenwandobjekte, Vier Ecken, Berlin, Germany
Sculpture
2025 The Wind is Gone, 48 Hours Neukölln, Berlin, Germany
Sculpture
2005 Alphabet Cityscapes, Parson School of Design, New York City
Ceramics
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 Home: A Journey of Identity and Belonging., Berlin, Germany
Sculpture
2006 University of Illinois, Urbana Illinois
Ceramics & Glass
2006 Bradley University, Peoria Illinois
Ceramics
2003 i-Space Gallery, Chicago
The “Future of Graphic Design”
Selected Honors, Awards, Highlights
2010-2013 Curated 16 exhibitions at Mota Italic Gallery
U of I College of Fine & Applied Arts Tuition Waiver Scholarship:
2002 Highest award of the 405 applicants in the college;
1999 Highest award for incoming students.
1998 Merit Award at Augustana College Professional Art Show
Quad Cities Arts High School Show:
1997 Best of Show
1998, 1999 Left Bank Art League Award
I was the only repeat winner in the 22 years of the show (till that point at least)
Contact
mail @ robkeller.art