Amber Robles-Gordon: The Sweet Glitter Juju of Life

Amber Robles-Gordon‘s work is deeply personal. Her mixed media paintings and sculptures draw upon her journey through motherhood, genealogy, healing, and being alive today. They represent her technical and scholarly growth as an artist, and are inspired by her professional development in the Washington, DC area. A recent graduate of the Howard University MFA Program (2010), Robles-Gordon is a board member of Black Artists of DC (BADC), and takes part in a diverse and multigenerational arts community. She is also an arts advocate who participates in several cross-cultural and cross-town initiatives that characterize Washington, DC‘s history of individual and grassroots organizational support for artists. Robles-Gordon has expressed that this rigorous and nurturing technical and conceptual dialogue has enriched her artistic process and her life; it has affected her approach to materials, techniques, and her vision as an artist. She notes the influence of many artists who have inspired her to see art-making as a profound engagement with oneself and the world.

Her two- and three-dimensional pieces fit within an expansive notion of painting and sculptural form. She uses wood or painted, stretched canvas, or chicken wire to support an accumulation of media in low- or sharp-relief. These assemblages require a close look to interpret their individual parts. Collectively, each object contributes to the palpable energy of the overall piece—hinting at their previous functions and the ?lives? of their former owners—configured by the artist‘s hands.

Robles-Gordon gathers and reshapes the sweet glitter juju of life into her work. Individual moments, personal vignettes, and more universal themes are equally woven into it. She examines spirituality, the phenomena of childbirth and motherhood, and the assignment of value to every little thing. She considers the blessings and burdens of femininity, and what it means to be a woman. She recycles fragments of garments, handbags, and accessories to engage the ways that these vanity objects—often used to define beauty—are also traps. She explores various metaphysical systems as a source of inspiration after an accident gave her the opportunity to test her faith and healing ability. Glitter-coated streams of paint add sparkle and shine to a range of discarded or thrifted objects. She breaks them down and reassembles them into collaged arrangements that are influenced by artists such as Romare Bearden, James Brown, Francine Haskins, Frida Kahlo, Georges Seurat, Frank Smith, and Alma Thomas. Robles-Gordon fuses varied influences into compositions that balance blank space, color, and hyper-materiality. She creates a subtle tension, and the possibility of opposing readings in her placement of assemblaged elements amidst dripping paint—which may represent the lyrical expression of painful experiences. These works belong to the series Milked, and simulate the outstretched wings of birds-in-flight against blue or yellow skies, butterflies, or the seductive curves of women‘s undergarments. Her affinity for lacy details, gloves, doilies, slips, and purses consist of a range of past and present accessories and small objects of home décor. She chooses from things—her own and others‘—to pull apart and reform; to give new life, and to scatter between various works like a sprinkling of fairy dust.

She plays with notions of masculine and feminine energy (as objectified) to address distinctions between the admiration of beauty, and its ethereal source or essence. Found dragonflies, dolls, deconstructed fan parts, remote controls, billiard balls, trophies, curling irons, hood ornaments, handles, and sparkly red children‘s maryjanes refer to male/female dynamics, and popular culture references, like fairy princesses, Oz, and what it may mean to be “?behind the eight ball.”

Robles-Gordon‘s collage sensibilities were influenced by artist-activist Romare Bearden (1901– 1988). Bearden‘s prolific work in collage shaped a visual narrative style that conveyed a palpable sense of 20th-century black life in America. Robles-Gordon states: I identify with Bearden‘s collages because I employ similar techniques and processes of cutting, pasting, reconstructing forms, faces, and concepts from photographs, magazines, and other paper sources to convey a message. I interpret his method and collages as a form of visual journaling. Through making collages, I have established a relationship between texture, symmetry, harmony, and compositional balance.

Inspired by Mexican surrealist, Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Robles-Gordon considers Kahlo‘s ability to overcome tragedy, illness, and grief as an expression of her strength, and its role as a source for her paintings. As one of the best-known women artists of the early 20th-century, Kahlo used life‘s obstacles as a way to hone and articulate her artistic voice:

Kahlo was a master at rendering her dreams, pain, and innermost thoughts and feelings. I am inspired by her personal connection to her art and its role within her life. Further, her artistic treatment of women and the depiction of her traumatic life have influenced my desire to create works reflective of my experiences as a woman.

In Bearden and Kahlo, Robles-Gordon discovered the arts to be a meaningful ways to convey personal narratives and relevant sociopolitical issues. She admires each artist‘s work as an embodiment of cultural pride, and as a means to stake a position on identity, subjugation, and giving voice to the voiceless. By combining personal elements with timeless and universal themes, Robles-Gordon uses collage, and non-traditional painterly devices to examine contemporary social issues: accumulation and waste, beauty and femininity, motherhood, spirituality, and the nonsensical or unexplainable juxtapositions that characterize daily existence.

In the work of pioneering abstract painter Alma Thomas (1891-1978), Robles-Gordon reflects upon Thomas‘s interpretation of primary color schemes, geometry, and composition. From French artist Georges Seurat‘s (1859-1891), she learned about the process of optical color mixing. Robles-Gordon states:

Thomas left small spaces of white canvas in between her brush strokes, creating the appearance of mosaics or stained glasswork.... [By studying this,] I began to evaluate the value, purpose, and aesthetic aspects of my art.... [Seurat] used white space to enhance the perception of color. He created a technique called ‘pointillism,‘ in which an image is rendered using tiny dots of primary and secondary colors. When the image is viewed from afar, the eye fuses the colors and creates intermediate colors.

She applied these concepts of color and technique to a body of untitled works in the series, Identification of the Matrix Grid. Begun in 2004, these pieces evolved from an artistic inquiry that used grid structures to create multi-colored layered matrices based on squares or rectangles. She cites Thomas and Seurat as sources for her grids: In my early works, I used torn, colored paper to create figurative paper mosaic compositions. Ripping the paper revealed its white fiber pulp, and provided areas of white space between each portion of color. Many of my paper mosaics appear from afar to look like Thomas‘s paintings until you come closer and see the texture of overlapping paper. The manner in which Thomas and Seurat used color and white space has influenced the way I visually perceive color and has informed my placement of color in the majority of these works.

As a member of BADC, Robles-Gordon has positioned her art as a part of an artist community that values African-inspired techniques and philosophies as a tool for exploring personal and artistic awareness. Her series, Cosmic Black, was created for the 2009 BADC exhibition, The Black Exhibit. Like the 20th-century exhibitions devoted to the color black as an expression of the sociopolitical issues associated with blackness, the focus of this show was to reinforce principles such as ?black is beautiful? and the positive attributes of the color.

Within BADC, fiber and textile artist James Brown, and mixed-media artist Francine Haskins have inspired Robles-Gordon‘s professional development. In Brown and Haskins, Robles- Gordon appreciates how each artist has contributed to an expansive understanding of the possibilities of textiles, fiber arts, and found objects in her own work. She also sees the work of artist, professor, and AfriCOBRA member, Frank Smith as an inspiration for developing mixed- media canvases and sculptures that combine sewing and painting. The physicality of Smith‘s work comes from layers of painted, cross-hatched squares, stamps, or other materials featured in kinetic arrangements. The wall-mounted draped textiles in her series, Heal Thyself Series, pay homage to Smith‘s quilted paintings, his use of space and brilliant palettes. Robles-Gordon says of these three artists:

In their own individual styles and techniques, Brown, Haskins, and Smith create two- dimensional figurative and abstracted compositions that appear to have varying planes of visual movement and rhythm that document, explore, and celebrate African and African American history and culture. Through exposure to their works and my relationships with Brown, Haskins, and Smith, they have supported and challenged me to continue my exploration of textiles, cloth, and sewing and have strongly encouraged my desire to go beyond the conventional practice of presenting works in frames.

In Robles-Gordon‘s recent work, familiar elements—straps, curling irons, gloves, shoes, dragonflies, and fans—take on new meanings and forms on her characteristically canvas, chicken wire, or wooden supports. The compositional possibilities are as limitless as her stockpile of materials and their conceptual associations. As the work moves this direction, her structural sensibilities—that once relied on grids and matrices—are being transformed into less regimented, more three-dimensional, and visually-interactive compositions. She states:

Though the matrix is still at the core of most of my compositions, the works are no longer defined by a grid format or flat surface. Taking away the boundaries of traditional framing encouraged me to allow the materials, colors, and energy to hang, flow, and ?leap off? of flat canvas, which ultimately leads to the shift from two-dimensional to three-dimensional works.

These developing concepts are best revealed in the Heal Thyself Series, the Chicken Wire Series, and At the Altar. Heal Thyself consists of wall hangings made from textiles and other media mounted on canvas. The Chicken Wire Series is comprised of mixed media works woven through and sculpted around a chicken wire base. At the Altar is composed of folded and draped canvases that are brightly painted and adorned with an array of found objects from plastic fruit to things associated with childbirth and maternity.

Tosha Grantham is an artist, writer, and independent curator. She is completing a PhD in African Diaspora Art History at the University of Maryland College Park.

Amber Robles-Gordon is a mixed media artist who lives in Washington, DC.

---

Upcoming Exhibitions:

Wired (solo exhibition)

(June 17 – July 17, 2011)

Pleasant Plains Workshop

2608 Georgia Avenue, NW,

Washington, DC 20009

Opening Reception: June 18, 2011 from 6-9 pm

Curator:

Kristina Bilonik Tel: (202) 415-1466

Website: www.pleasantplains.com 

Delusions of Grandeur (group exhibition)

(July 8 – August 30, 2011)

Featured Artists: Shaunte Gates, Jamea Richmond Edwards and Amber Robles-Gordon)

Commissioned exhibition by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel

Exhibition Space

1330 Maryland Avenue, SW,

Washington, DC 20024

Opens: July 8, 2011

Contact:

Jamea Richmond-Edwards Tel: (571) 288-1086

Pen Arts presents:

Lace (Solo Exhibition)

(October 31 - November 5)

Robles-Gordon will be the keynote speaker for the DC Branch' of The National League of American Pen Women November meeting.

National Headquarters Pen Arts Building

1300 Seventeenth Street N.W.

Washington, D.C.  20036-1973

Opening Reception: To be announced

Contact: (202) 785-1997

Website: www.americanpenwomen.org 

Amber Robles-Gordon's Solo Exhibition WIRED at Pleasant Plains

Curated by Kristina Bilonick

June 18 - July 16, 2011 Opening Reception: Sat. June 18, 6-9pm

Pleasant Plains Workshop is pleased to present a solo project, Wired, by artist, Amber Robles-Gordon. Robles-Gordon recently received her MFA from Howard University and works in mixed media, textile, photography, and painting.

For this exhibition, Robles-Gordon has transformed found objects with ribbons, gimp, fabric, wire and other materials to create exciting wall works that explore patterns, color and material. The works also speak to her cultural identity which is influenced by Caribbean, Latin-American, and African-American cultures.

Please join us for the opening reception on June 18th, from 6-9 PM.

Pleasant Plains Workshop

2608 Georgia Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20001

pleasantplainsworkshop@gmail.com

www.pleasantplainsworkshop.com

A Group Exhibition of Recent Works by BADC and WPA Member Artists opens at Hillyer Art Space in Washington, D.C.

A GROUP EXHIBITION, titled "Process: Reaffirmation," presenting recent works by Black Artists of D.C. (BADC) and Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) member artists opened at Hillyer Art Space on Friday evening, April 1.

The exhibition, which is curated by Gina Marie Lewis, focuses on and reaffirms the processes of artists within their studios, honors the personal philosophies, practices, and vocabularies of eight artists and attempts to explore a visual dialogue between their works.

Read the full article: www.swedishscene.com/2011/04/a-group-exhibition-of-recent-w.html

Works by artist Victor Ekpuk (wall) and Joel D’Orazio (sculpture)

By Daniel Brooking

April 2011

Process: Reaffirmation

Presented by Hillyer Art Space in collaboration with Washington Project for the Arts, and Black Artists of D.C.

Curated by Gina Marie Lewis, Process: Reaffirmation focused on and reaffirmed the processes of artists within their studios. The exhibition honored the personal philosophies, practices, and vocabularies of eight artists and attempted to explore a visual dialogue between their works.

The artists selected for this exhibition include Anne Bouie, Daniel Brookings, Joel D’Orazio, Victor Ekpuk, Corwin Levi, Barbara Liotta, Adrienne Mills, and Cleve Overton. In some cases, the relationships between their works may be obvious, and other instances invite the viewer to inquire and explore the relationships from their own point of view. As a starting point, such aspects as linear relationships, creation of new processes, innovative use of materials, the making of marks, and defining space were most apparent during the curatorial process.

https://athillyer.org/portfolio/hillyer-art-space-washington-project-for-the-arts-and-black-artists-of-dc/

Reclaiming Those Negative Images, Roll Call Inc.

Reclaiming Those Negative Images

Feb. 16, 2010

By Kristin Coyner

Roll Call Staff

Oftentimes, there’s more talent under our noses than we realize. That’s certainly true when it comes to “Mixed Media Reflections,” a new gallery at the Corner Store, a multiuse arts space at 900 South Carolina Ave. SE.

Alec Simpson and Tray Patterson, both Washington artists, are acting co-curators for the gallery. Simpson, who often deals in abstract art, is one of 12 Washington-area African-American artists whose works are on display.

The idea for the show started rather simply, over a meal between Patterson and Simpson.

“We just got together over lunch one day and decided to put on a show last fall,” Simpson said.

In light of Simpson’s own success last year with a one-man show at the Corner Store — Simpson sold all his small works in “Flashback/Fast Forward” — it followed that the planners focused on small works. “In view of what people were saying about the economy, we just thought that maybe we’d stick with that concept,” Simpson said. All works at the gallery are on sale for $240 to $1,000.

“We didn’t have any idea how many artists there would be in it, how many pieces there were going to be, how big they were going to be, but we did know that we didn’t want them to be priced out of the market,” Simpson said. With the theme of Black History Month, the mixed media motif pulls everything together.

Stepping into the front room of the Corner Store, where the works are on display, is a treat. The front space is warm and beautiful, with colored walls and exposed brick. The artists’ works are accentuated by the lack of a modern white-walled space.

As for the works, some pieces use found objects, others use silk, some are on ceramic and still others are on paper. One artist, Alonzo Davis, even uses bamboo poles and fabrics.

The show is a mixture of materials and artistic styles, but the works manage to tie to the theme of Black History Month in a compelling way. All the artists in some way touch on the African diaspora, from clear visual images of brutality to parodies of mockery of black personhood to abstract works that offer the chance to create new meaning.

Works by Aziza Gibson Hunter, “Prayers to Haiti,” were a late addition to the show. Gibson Hunter composed a series that incorporates elements of African cloth and other found objects, including Haitian money, to offer homage to the small island nation devastated by an earthquake a month ago. Gibson Hunter intends to donate all proceeds to Doctors Without Borders.

One wall in particular seems to deal most directly with ancestral issues and imagery, which are most readily visualized through Anne Bouie’s “Ancestry 5,” “Ancestry 6” and “Ancestry 8.” Bouie incorporates Aunt Jemima and Uncle Tom figures but creates new meaning with the images.

And that, to Simpson, underscores a driving theme of the entire show. “It’s a matter of transformation, transforming it into something different and new,” he said. “It’s about seeing new things in what wasn’t necessarily good.”

Patterson added: “It’s also reclaiming it. Reclaiming a negative stereotype that was out there to turn it.” The breadth of artistic techniques that individual artists have perfected is another striking aspect of the show. For example, artist Juliette Madison uses mixed media clay pieces by transferring images onto clay using ink that she created.

Madison’s “Lord Why” displays the technique with a veritable gut punch. The work shows the archival photograph of a lynched woman who, along with her son, was accused of theft. The significance of the story is made clear with the phrase “Lord why is my seed in the wind?” emblazoned on top of the image.

“African-American artists don’t feel backed into a corner,” Simpson said. “They create and let the chips fall where they may. There’s an authenticity to what you see.”

The exhibit, which opened Feb. 5, will run until the 28th. The Corner Store doubles as an art space and home to Kris Swanson, a sculptor who for the past eight years has welcomed any variety of art events into her home, including author readings, CD release parties and theatrical performances.

Because the space functions as a home, the Corner Store isn’t open for regular hours. However, Swanson makes appointments at webmaster@cornerstorearts.org or 202-544-5807.

The Corner Store Gallery

900 South Carolina Avenue, SE

Washington, DC 20003

(202) 544-5807

 www.cornerstorearts.org

Metro: Within 2 blocks of the Eastern Market Station

Orange and Blue Lines

2010 © Roll Call Inc. All rights reserved.

Visions, Voices, Viewpoints and Victories of African American Artists at Peltz Galler

Guest curator: Della Wells

Opening Reception: Friday, January 21, 6 to 9:30pm

Artists: 

David Anderson

Reginald Baylor

Trenton Baylor

Portia Cobb

Willie Cole

Sam Gilliam

Sharon Kerry Harlan

Sonji Hunt

Mutope Johnson

Ras' Ammar 'Nsoroma

Alison Saar

Evelyn Patricia Terry

Kara Walker

Della Wells

Kehinde Wiley

George Williams, Jr.,

Amber Robles-Gordon.

James Richmond Edwards

Paintings, drawings, collage, wall hangings and original prints by more than 25 artists.

PELTZ GALLERY

1119 E. Knapp St. Milwaukee, Wisconsin

53202 USA

414.223.4278

www.artnet.com/gallery/851/peltz-gallery.html

Saturday, January 22 11am to 4pm - coffee, food and conversation with artists.

Beyond The Pale at Emerson Gallery, McLean Project for the Arts

Featured Artists:

Amber Robles-Gordon

Huguette Roe

Suzanna Fields

Gina Denton

Joseph Barbaccia

Emerson Gallery, McLean Project for the Arts

January 20 – March 5, 2011

The term Beyond the Pale was originally used to describe a barrier meant to enclose or define territory during military maneuvers beyond which it was not permissible to go. In more general contemporary terms, it has now come to mean an action or thing that is regarded as outside the limits of what is acceptable. The five artists in this exhibition, Amber Robles-Gordon, Huguette Roe, Suzanna Fields, Gina Denton and Joesph Barbaccia, all work fearlessly and with determination outside the barriers usually associated with traditional art making. They create works that are distinct, idiosyncratic expressions of their own individuality, breaking old rules only to write new ones regarding materials used, processes employed, and formal traditions no longer strictly adhered to.

Although the artists were chosen for their individuality, there are also commonalities that emerge when their works are seen together. All are interested in both the idea and process of accumulation, many parts merging to become a whole. All are also collectors in their own way, bringing together imagery, materials, and ideas. And all five bring these components together carefully and primarily by hand, through processes that embrace repetition and the creative, meditative state it can induce.

Amber Robles-Gordon works in a studio full of the accumulations necessary to create her work. Bits of fabric, tile, beads, string, ribbons, and wire are collected and organized, ready to become mixed media wall oriented pieces. Some of her works are structured and geometric, while others are masses of vibrant complexity organized around basic shapes such as an eye, the DNA helix or a rising wingspan. These are works that entice the viewer to look in as well as at, to experience fully a carefully controlled chaos and all the beautiful paradoxes encompassed therein.

Huguette Roe’s photographs depict collections of images of accumulated recycled materials. Photographed from a close-in vantage point, the images become studies of color, pattern and repetition. They are profoundly beautiful in a formal sense, and also silently profound conceptually, as they highlight and represent the beauty in what we refuse and reuse. Roe’s choice of subject matter lies outside the boundary, but she skillfully employs the full strength of her artistic skills to create works that entice visually as they simultaneously raise some of our society’s largest quandaries.

Suzanna Fields uses the traditional material of acrylic paint in distinctly new and non- traditional ways. Working with the paint in both two and three dimensions, she employs just about everything except a brush to build abstract works that celebrate both wonder and unease. Like the other artists in this exhibition, she is comfortable with the fullness of paradox, as she explores and embraces cycles, rejuvenation, oscillation, order and patterns undone. Fields is at her core an experimenter, bringing this to bear fully through both method and materials.

Baltimore artist Gina Denton is also a collector and compiler. Working primarily with textile materials of one sort or another, she builds oddly beautiful and slightly sinister sculptures that refer, by virtue of their shape and colors, to body parts or living beings. At one point stating her artistic goal as “ protecting and personifying the pseudo-animate” Denton has indeed created works that seem to have crossed the border to reside in a world all their own. Using recycled sweaters, felted colored wool, bits of fabric scraps and hair of both the human and animal variety, she has formulated fantastic objects that are at once familiar, friendly and also a bit frightening.

Joseph Barbaccia’s sculptures are both simple and complex. Using as a base clear and meaningful forms- a knot, a gathering of flames, an animated but unidentifiable creature- Barbaccia then covers the shape with a complex skin of shining sequins, a distinctly unorthodox but very effective material choice. The pieces become jewel-like and are digested wholly, through a gestalt-like process, experienced as much as seen. He describes his intention as “paring down visual insight to a more essential level of expression” and the viewer finds that he has done just that. One meets each individual piece in the same way one meets another person-simply as itself.

The works in this exhibition, shown together, do develop a dialogue. They speak in unison fleetingly, but enough to create an undercurrent of harmony that resonates throughout the space. They speak together of unabashed and unconventional beauty, and of interpretive acceptance; an invitation to read the work on your own terms. They speak of the calmness of repetition and the excitement of a different approach: a new material; a new way of working with the familiar; an innovative choice. They speak of accumulating and assimilating. And mostly they speak together of barriers pushed, borders crossed, and new territory explored.

Nancy Sausser, Curator

FOCUS GROUP: Four Walls, Four Women Presented by Black Artists of DC (BADC)

Featuring work by

Jamea Richmond Edwards

Danielle Scruggs

Kristen Hayes

Amber Robles-Gordon

Curated by Zoma Wallace

FOCUS GROUP: Four Walls, Four Women seeks to spark a visual discussion between artworks created by Black women and a verbal dialogue between those who view and purchase them. The topic of discussion is material. What are artists using? What materials do they feel drawn to? How does Black femininity affect or reflect itself in the chosen material(s), if at all? How does femininity affect the delivery and/or reception of the message? 

The voices of the women artists in this exhibition are heard primarily through material form. Embracing both visual and verbal discussion, FOCUS GROUP: Four Walls, Four Women hopes to determine how effectively unique material languages are deciphered/valued/appreciated/acquired by a universal audience and market. 

FOCUS GROUP: Four Walls, Four Women is the second in a series of collaborations between DC Arts Center and Black Artists of DC. The purpose of Black Artists of DC (BADC) is to create a Black artists community to promote, develop and validate the culture, artistic expressions and aspirations of past and present artists of Black-Afrikan ancestry in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Opening Reception: Friday November 19, 7-9pm  

District of Columbia Arts Center

2338 18th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009

https://dcartscenter.org/2010/11/19/focus-group-four-walls-five-women-curated-by-zoma-wallace-november-19-january-9/

MATRICES OF TRANSFORMATION: A Process of Discovery through Collage and Assemblage

The Art of Amber Robles-Gordon

View fullsize

My Thesis Defense Exhibition

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Exhibition: Monday November 22, 2010 - Wednesday December 1, 2010

Howard University Thesis Defense: Monday November 29, 2020 3:00-500 pm

Michael Platt’s Studio 1468 Chapin Street, NW Washington, DC 20009 (Between Adams and Bryant Street) Viewing by appt. contact:

(202) 332-6917 or michealbplatt@verizon.net 

Amber Robles–Gordon (240) 417-4888 aroblesgordon@yahoo.com

Jamea Richmond-Edwards and Amber Robles Gordon: Pretty Things, Little Treasures and Hidden Meanings

View fullsize

Amber Robles-Gordon Milked, 2010, 30x30 on canvas

View fullsize

Jamea Richmond-Edwards Unforsaken, 2010, 18x24 on canva

Friday September 3- Friday September 17, 2010

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Gallery at AYN Studio in the Penn Quarter neighborhood, will present an exhibition of collage and assemblage creations by artists Jamea Richmond-Edwards and Amber Robles-Gordon entitled, “Pretty Things, Little Treasures and Hidden Meanings”. The exhibition will open on Friday September 3, 2010 with a public reception from 6:30-8:30 pm. The exhibition will remain on view by appointment until Friday September 17, 2010.

“Pretty Things, Little Treasures and Hidden Meanings” is inspired by the themes in their work that convey the feminine mystique. Both women focus on their personal stories and the roles of women in society. The “Pretty Things” refers to the physical beauty and the sentiment that women attribute to the things they collect and adorn themselves with. “Little Treasures” are the intricate details that create the narratives. The “Hidden Meanings” are the various images and concepts that encompass the feminine mystique, yet reproduce social norms that confine.

This exhibition is the product of an artistic partnership and dialogue about emerging women artists. The dialogue began about how to navigate through the art world and challenge the notion of the individual and isolated artist. The two artists met while working on their MFA’s at Howard University and through their affiliation with Black Artists of DC. They discovered commonalities in their work and decided to partner and exhibit works focusing on womanhood.

Detroit native Jamea Richmond-Edwards studied painting and drawing at Jackson State University.

She primarily paints women and is influenced by childhood memories and the complex lives of the women in her life. She has developed her own unique style of mixed media portraiture using paper, graphite, and ink.

Amber Robles-Gordon is an artist, student, and native of Puerto Rico. She is currently finishing her Masters in Fine Arts at Howard University. Her medium is collage and assemblage. She focuses on fusing found objects to convey her own personal memories, inspired by nature, womanhood, and her belief in recycle energy.

Artist work can be viewed at www.jamearichmondedwards.com, www.amberroblesgordon.com

Interview Contact and to make appt: Amber Robles Gordon Telephone: 240-417-4888

Contact: The Gallery at AYN Studio 923 F St. NW Suite#201, Washington, D.C. 202-271-9475 http://www.aynstudio.com/ gediyon@AynStudio.com

Intersecciones Culturales: Voces de América Latina y el Caribe Cultural Crossroads: Voices of Latin America and the Caribbean

 Felix Angel - Joan Belmar - Rafael Corzo - Amber Robles-Gordon

September 15 - October 15, 2010 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 18, 5 - 8pm

View fullsize

The Brentwood Arts Exchange at the Gateway Arts Center is proud to present, Intersecciones Culturales: Voces de America Latina y el Caribe / Cultural Crossroads: Voices from Latin America and the Caribbean, an exhibition featuring artwork by Felix Angel, Joan Belmar, Amber Robles-Gordon, and Rafael Corzo. Curated by Carmen Toruella-Quander, and assisted by Ricardo Penuela-Pava, Cultural Crossroads is a celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, a time when we honor the contributions of Hispanic Americans to the United States and celebrate Hispanic heritage and culture. Intersecciones Culturales / Cultural Crossroads is compact, with the intent to overload. Rafael Corzo, presenting art in the gallery as well as the craft store, brings an ambitious embodiment of youthful energy and freedom. Amber Robles-Gordon exhibits dazzling wall sculptures evocative of Carnival, steeped in the Afro-Caribbean heritage of objects imbued with symbolism so deeply felt that even when open to intellectual interpretation, their emotional interpretation rings clear. Joan Belmar presents an installation of abstractions rendered with incredible precision and care. Each creates delicate illusions of space that rest on balance between external structure and the fluidity of emotions. And, that's all before mentioning Felix Angel, who lends the exhibition nine works of undeniable power. The most established and longest experienced of this talented group, Angel - better known in the DC region as a curator than as an artist - brings forth refinement, eloquence, and poignance, that are always and only the outcome of years of creation, focus and discipline. As a whole, Intersecciones Culturales / Cultural Crossroads is an expansive, energetic and positive stand against any generalization of "Latin Art". It steps in many directions, danced in embrace with all of life - the expression of which makes art powerful. It is not THE voice from Latin America and the Caribbean. It is four voices, artists varied in age and experience, creating contemporary art informed by cultural heritage from Columbia, Chile, Puerto Rico, and Mexico - places as distant and distinct from one another as from here, yet bound by language and post-colonial legacy, and by their living contribution to the fabric of our lives.

Brentwood Arts Exchange - exchanging ideas through art. A facility of the Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission. Hours: Monday through Friday: 10am - 8pm Saturday: 10am - 6pm Closed Sunday @ Gateway Arts Center 3901 Rhode Island Avenue Brentwood, MD 20722 301-277-2863/ tty. 301-446-6802 www.pgparks.com/Things_To_Do/Arts/Brentwood-Arts-Exchange-at-Gateway-Arts-Center.htm

African American Art Alive in the District: Partnerships, exhibitions help the Black Artists of D.C.

In a city with a changing art scene, 10-year-old organization Black Artists of D.C. fosters a community of support and inspiration.

Amber Robles-Gordon is an African American artist who teaches yoga and pilates, organizes art workshops, and writes an art blog. “[My work is] colorful, intuitive, and abstract,” Robles-Gordon said of her art, which includes three-dimensional pieces, collages and paper mosaics.

Robles-Gordon’s work was recently featured in an exhibition at the D.C. Arts Center called “Black” that focused on artists’ personal perceptions of blackness. Her work personifies a growing black art movement in the District that is often overlooked.

A Supportive Art Family

Since 2004, Robles-Gordon, 32, has been active in Black Artists of D.C., a growing art organization with about 400 members.

“I just jumped in, and at that time there was a wonderful group, but there wasn’t a whole lot of structure,” she said of the organization, which elected her president in 2009.

Robles-Gordon has been a leader in the group since she joined, curating exhibits and publicizing the organization. She cites Black Artists of D.C. as a major support system.

“My family’s not here,” she said of relatives in her native Puerto Rico, “so I was searching not only for artists; I was also searching for family, and it was like I inherited an artistic family.”

The group, which partners with other organizations and has strong ties to Howard University, provides inspiration to Robles-Gordon and other members.

“Beyond what they gave me in terms of love and support, I also learned so much,” she said.

Read more and view interviews with artists Amber Robles-Gordon and Michael Platt, Janell Blackmon,art history professor at Howard University and Norman Parish owner of the Parish Gallery in Georgetown... http://onlinejournalismworkshop.com/artists/story.html

Reclaiming Those Negative Images: Mixed Media Reflections Exhibit at The Corner Store Gallery

Reclaiming Those Negative Images Feb. 16, 2010 By Kristin Coyner Roll Call Staff

Oftentimes, there’s more talent under our noses than we realize. That’s certainly true when it comes to “Mixed Media Reflections,” a new gallery at the Corner Store, a multiuse arts space at 900 South Carolina Ave. SE.

Alec Simpson and Tray Patterson, both Washington artists, are acting co-curators for the gallery. Simpson, who often deals in abstract art, is one of 12 Washington-area African-American artists whose works are on display.

The idea for the show started rather simply, over a meal between Patterson and Simpson.

“We just got together over lunch one day and decided to put on a show last fall,” Simpson said.

In light of Simpson’s own success last year with a one-man show at the Corner Store — Simpson sold all his small works in “Flashback/Fast Forward” — it followed that the planners focused on small works. “In view of what people were saying about the economy, we just thought that maybe we’d stick with that concept,” Simpson said.

All works at the gallery are on sale for $240 to $1,000.

“We didn’t have any idea how many artists there would be in it, how many pieces there were going to be, how big they were going to be, but we did know that we didn’t want them to be priced out of the market,” Simpson said. With the theme of Black History Month, the mixed media motif pulls everything together.

Stepping into the front room of the Corner Store, where the works are on display, is a treat. The front space is warm and beautiful, with colored walls and exposed brick. The artists’ works are accentuated by the lack of a modern white-walled space.

As for the works, some pieces use found objects, others use silk, some are on ceramic and still others are on paper. One artist, Alonzo Davis, even uses bamboo poles and fabrics.

The show is a mixture of materials and artistic styles, but the works manage to tie to the theme of Black History Month in a compelling way. All the artists in some way touch on the African diaspora, from clear visual images of brutality to parodies of mockery of black personhood to abstract works that offer the chance to create new meaning.

Works by Aziza Gibson Hunter, “Prayers to Haiti,” were a late addition to the show. Gibson Hunter composed a series that incorporates elements of African cloth and other found objects, including Haitian money, to offer homage to the small island nation devastated by an earthquake a month ago. Gibson Hunter intends to donate all proceeds to Doctors Without Borders.

One wall in particular seems to deal most directly with ancestral issues and imagery, which are most readily visualized through Anne Bouie’s “Ancestry 5,” “Ancestry 6” and “Ancestry 8.” Bouie incorporates Aunt Jemima and Uncle Tom figures but creates new meaning with the images.

And that, to Simpson, underscores a driving theme of the entire show. “It’s a matter of transformation, transforming it into something different and new,” he said. “It’s about seeing new things in what wasn’t necessarily good.”

Patterson added: “It’s also reclaiming it. Reclaiming a negative stereotype that was out there to turn it.”

The breadth of artistic techniques that individual artists have perfected is another striking aspect of the show. For example, artist Juliette Madison uses mixed media clay pieces by transferring images onto clay using ink that she created.

Madison’s “Lord Why” displays the technique with a veritable gut punch. The work shows the archival photograph of a lynched woman who, along with her son, was accused of theft. The significance of the story is made clear with the phrase “Lord why is my seed in the wind?” emblazoned on top of the image.

“African-American artists don’t feel backed into a corner,” Simpson said. “They create and let the chips fall where they may. There’s an authenticity to what you see.”The exhibit, which opened Feb. 5, will run until the 28th. The Corner Store doubles as an art space and home to Kris Swanson, a sculptor who for the past eight years has welcomed any variety of art events into her home, including author readings, CD release parties and theatrical performances.

Because the space functions as a home, the Corner Store isn’t open for regular hours. However, Swanson makes appointments at webmaster@cornerstorearts.org or 202-544-5807.

The Corner Store Gallery 900 South Carolina Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20003 (202) 544-5807

www.cornerstorearts.org

Metro: Within 2 blocks of the Eastern Market Station Orange and Blue Lines

Colorblind/ Colorsight opens at AU November 10, 2009

Exhibition Dates: November 9 – December 5, 2009Opening Reception: Tuesday November 10, 2009 8-9pm

November 9, 2009- Washington, DC American University is pleased to present Colorblind/Colorsight, curated by A.U. MFA candidate Rachel Sitkin and featuring the work of area MFA candidates Yumi Hogan, Hedieh J. Ilchi, Amber Robles-Gordon, Mekbib Gerbertsadik, Beverly Paul, Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle and recent MFA graduate Matthew Owen Wead. (Image above by Matthew Owen Wead.)

Colorblind/Colorsight looks at the diverse practices of these seven emerging artists who deal with issues of gender, race and ethnicity. In conjunction with the American University 2009 Fall Colloquium series, Beyond the Binary: Race-ing Art, this exhibition examines what it means to identify as an “ethnic” artist in a “post-racial” America.

Please join us for a panel discussion with Howardina Pindell, Sanford Biggers, Jiha Moon, Galo Moncayo and Isabel Manalo followed by a reception for Colorblind/Colorsight on Tuesday, November 10, 2009.

Panel Discussion: 6-8pm in the Abramson Recital Hall
Gallery Reception: 8-9pm in the Rotunda Gallery

American University Katzen Art Center
4400 Massachusetts Ave.Washington, DC 20016

https://bmoreart.com/2009/11/colorblind-colorsight-opens-at-au.html