Robert Beatty (artist)

Robert Beatty (/ˈbeɪti/ BAY-tee;[1] born 1981)[2] is an American artist and musician based in Lexington, Kentucky,[3][4] best known for his noise band Hair Police, his solo project Three Legged Race, and most recently for his work designing album covers, including Tame Impala's Currents (2015),[5] Kesha's Rainbow (2017), and limited-edition artwork for The Weeknd's Dawn FM (2022).

[6][7] Growing up, he "constantly" drew, teaching himself[8] and taking inspiration from MTV's series Liquid Television, Terry Gilliam's animated work, and Mad.

"[7] He began working by hand and today mostly uses Adobe Illustrator and an old version of Photoshop[12] running on a ten-year-old computer[5] to perform his "digital airbrushing",[15] replicating and subverting traditional graphic design techniques using software.

[4] In 2018 he contributed "surreal"[27] art for use in fashion house Dries Van Noten's fall-winter 2018 collection,[23][28][29] with his work featured prominently in window displays at European retail locations.

[5] Beatty performs electronic and noise music solo under his own name and formerly performed under the names Three Legged Race and Ed Sunspot,[32][33][34] co-founded Hair Police in 2001[35] (who went on to open for a Sonic Youth tour),[6] and is or has been a member of experimental and electronic bands Warmer Milks,[1] Burning Star Core, Eyes and Arms of Smoke,[3] and Lexington collective Resonant Hole.