Futurelics: Past is Present is the first publication of the work of contemporary artist Robert Mars that earned comparisons with Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Diebenkorn, James Rosenquist, and other Pop Art masters. Taking inspiration from the golden age of American popular culture and the iconography of the 1950s and 60s, Mars employs a rich colour palette in collage art. Often tongue-in-cheek, his signature neon Futurelics Popforms pay homage to the power of iconic branding, gripping beauty, and whimsical imagery cultivated by the urgent pressures that evolved from post-WWII to the present. Mars' optimism recalls a time when instant digital celebrity was inconceivable - when people lived with the myth of uniquely untouchable icons - the Futurelics - Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Audrey Hepburn, Elvis Presley, and many others. Futurelics are what have lasting impact - what births a legacy, larger than life, larger than lifestyle. That is Futurelics.
