Malik Roberts, "My Brother's Keeper"

Blue painting of a figure with collage-like combination of facial features.

"My Brother's Keeper" is acrylic, pastel, and oil on canvas created by Malik Roberts in 2018. The piece is on loan from John Barker P'16. Malik Roberts is a Brooklyn-based painter and multimedia artist creating works of figurative abstraction that address contemporary social issues such as police brutality, exclusionary politics, and systemic racism. In his unique artistic language, Roberts articulates haunting similarities between reality and caricature. "My Brother's Keeper" from his second solo exhibition, "BLK & BLUE," deals with issues of mental health in communities of color. The artist notes that this piece represents the support he received from his older sister in their adolescence. Roberts' work has been widely received, from collaborations with brands such as Nike and Adidas to a painting in the Vatican collection.