Evan Robarts’ work is ostensibly born of a kindred sensibility to Arte Povera, the earthy Italian anti-modernism movement that flourished in the Sixties, and which employed such down-at-the-heel materials as wax, broken glass, soil, and wood as its vernacular. But you’d be forgiven if your first impression of the young artist’s work was one of jouissance and love of the line. In “Run of the Mill,” his current solo show at The Hole, Robarts employs materials familiar from the stolid realms of industry and construction to more light-hearted ends, weaving rubber hoses through panes of glass to create distilled squiggles that evoke the neon compositions of Keith Sonnier; their winsome arcs and dips make you wish they were aglow in pastel shades, although the gallery’s press materials are quick to emphasize their gritty point of origin: Robarts worked maintenance in East New York, spending long hours fumbling with the innards of unloved buildings.
