Born in Baltimore, Robert Marbury began his artistic career as an actor in a John Waters’ film. Appropriately, Marbury has continued to use film, video and photography to become a contemporary explorer of popular culture. Trained as both an anthropologist and an artist, he synthesizes the methodology of both disciplines to address each project. Marbury’s projects range from documenting a former Aboriginal trade route in Australasia to discovering the origins of stuffed animal toys tied to the grills of truck in US cities.

Through his Urban Beast Project, Marbury alludes to the plates, prints and paraphernalia of gentleman explorers to classify, categorize and comprehend an imaginary world of feral city dwelling animals. Marbury also co-founded the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, which is an international organization dedicated to the shared mandate to advocate the showmanship of oddities; espouse the belief in natural adaptation and mutation; and encourage the desire to create displays of curiosity.

By blurring the boundaries of authentic and fake, between representation and parody, Marbury attempts to bring our faith in knowledge into question, hopefully allowing for glimpse of wonder in an otherwise orderly world.