Who is RAG
Robyn Gibson is an emerging artist and curator living and working in Louisville, KY.
She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Louisville in 2014, earning a BFA in Painting and a BSBA in Marketing. Since receiving her MFA in 2018 from the New York Academy of Art, Gibson has been developing her multidisciplinary art practice.
After she started boxing in 2016, Gibson began incorporating it into her art practice. Larger-than-life-sized bold, gestural charcoal figures on canvas, a lyrical writing style meant to pack a punch, and voluptuous vessels inspired by her own curves all convey the movement and force important to her work and inspired by her boxing practice. The act of taking up space and claiming ownership of it is important to her work. As a Black artist focused on self-portraiture and the exploration of her trauma, Gibson grapples with Black identity, the depiction, perception and value of Black bodies, and what it means to be authentic.
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Biography
Lives and works in Louisville, KY
1989 Born in West Palm Beach, FL
Education
New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2018 MFA Painting
University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
2014 BFA 2D Studio areas of concentration: Drawing and Painting
2014 BSBA Marketing; Minor: Entrepreneurship
Residencies/Fellowships
2023 - 2024 AA Clay, Louisville, KY
2023 Ross Lynn Charitable Foundation Residency, Ruston, LA
NCECA Multicultural Fellowship
2021 BKLYN CLAY, Brooklyn, NY
North Louisiana Virtual Artist-In-Residence Program
2019 – 2020 Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, FL
Exhibitions
2024 NCECA 2024 Multicultural Fellowship Exhibition, Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond, VA
2023 Enfolding: A Study of Margins & Centres, Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, Queens Terrace, St Andrews, Scotland
Five Points: A Convergence of Dreams, Equity Gallery, New York, NY
2022 Life is Weird Solo Exhibition, Wheelhouse Art, Louisville, KY
Emergence: Identity & Environment Through Emerging Artists of Color, Davines, Brooklyn, NY
Art3 Pop-up Salon, Manhattan, NY
BKLYN CLAY Artist-in-Residence Solo Exhibition, BKLYN CLAY, Brooklyn, NY
Broken, Solo Online Exhibition, Jargonist.org
We Can’t Heal What We Don’t Reveal, North Louisiana Virtual Residency Exhibition, The North Central Louisiana Arts
Council Gallery (nclacgallery.org)
2021 Parallels & Peripheries: Practice + Presence, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2020 NYAE 2020 Members Invitational, Equity Gallery, New York, NY
Art4Equality x Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness, The Untitled Space Gallery, New York, NY
Young Blood, Space St Barth SOHO Contemporary art Gallery, New York, NY
Armory Art Center Artists in Residence Show, Armory Art Center East Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL
2019 New and Now, Armory Art Center East Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL
Dinner Party, Quinn Hotel, New York, NY
2018 Rema Hort Mann Foundation Buy What You Love, Galerie Richard, New York, NY
New York Academy of Art 2018 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Wilkinson Gallery, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2017 Deck the Walls, Wilkinson Gallery, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2016 #BLACKARTMATTERS Juried Group Show, The Carnegie Center for Art and History, New Albany, IN
2015 Open Studio Weekend Group Show, Cressman Gallery, Louisville, KY
Our Voices Our Stories Juried Group Show, Gallery K, Louisville, KY
2014 University of Louisville Fall 2014 BFA Thesis Exhibition, Covi Gallery, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
Performances
2022 Journey of the Self: NY Artists Equity Poetry Reading, Manhattan, NY
2020 Heavy, Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, FL
Different: Poetry Reading, Equity Gallery, New York, NY
Curatorial Projects
2022 Guest Curator for the Artist Confluence, Art3 Pop-up Salon, Manhattan, NY
2021 Guest Curator with online gallery space Jargonist, Six Degrees of NYC
Guest Curator with online gallery space Jargonist, Perspective
Assistant Curator alongside Larry Ossei-Mensah, Parallels & Peripheries: Practice + Presence, New York Academy of Art,
New York, NY
Press/Publications
2022 Canvas Rebel Featured Artist, June, 2022
SOFT Qtrly Issue #5
2021 Shout Out LA Featured Artist, October, 2021
Smith, Melissa. “From the Periphery to the Fore,” The New York Times, March, 2021
Becker, Noah. “Parallels & Peripheries: Curator Larry Ossei-Mensah on his Exhibition at the New York Academy of art –
in Conversation with Noah Becker,” WhiteHot Magazine, February 2021.
2020 The Untitled Space, Art4Equality x Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness: Exhibition Publication, November 2020.
2019 (t)here Magazine Volume 19, December 2019.
2015 Pfalzgraf, Daniel. “It’s in the Details,”ArteBella Daily, May 12, 2015. Web.
Teaching Experience
2023-2024 Wheel and Hand Building Instructor, AA Clay Studio, Louisville, KY
2021 Art and Culture Adjunct Faculty Member, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2020 Drawing and Painting for Beginners Instructor, Urban Youth Impact, West Palm Beach, FL
2019 – 2020 Figure Drawing and Painting, Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, FL
2018 – 2019 Teaching Assistant, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY