Fort Gansevoort To Showcase Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson's Art

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Fort Gansevoort in New York City will present 25 works by the late artist Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson (1940–2015) in an exhibition titled“Beaded and Bound,” opening on November 19 and continuing through January 16. The show, organized in collaboration with the Columbus Museum of Art, will highlight Robinson's mixed-media books, embellished textiles, and dolls.

Robinson, who largely resided in Columbus, Ohio, explored storytelling through embroidery, appliqué, writing, painting, and drawing. According to the gallery, her work“wove personal memories, family histories, and local narratives into richly tactile, sometimes peculiar, and always moving works alive with the histories of the African diaspora.”

The artist called her sculptural reliefs on books“RagGonNon,” describing them as interactive, evolving, and open to interpretation, much like literature. She also employed a unique material known as“hogmawg,” a mixture of clay, leaves, twigs, mud, lime, animal grease, and glue, a technique taught to her by her father, who also instructed her in bookmaking. Her mother taught her sewing and needlework.

Born in 1940, Robinson's family moved to Poindexter Village in Columbus, one of the first federally funded public housing projects in the U.S. specifically for African Americans. A new museum is slated to honor the history of Poindexter Village in 2028. After studying art in college, Robinson worked for Columbus's recreation and parks department in the 1970s and facilitated workshops. During a 1979 trip to Egypt, she legally adopted the name Aminah after a holy man bestowed it upon her. She first exhibited her work in the early 1980s.

Robinson maintained a significant creative and spiritual connection with fellow Columbus artist Elijah Pierce. She once said of Pierce,“He was a great person, a great artist, and a person who walked with integrity, and he passed on so much of that wisdom to me. We just generally like to be around each other. There was just a connection there.” Works like“A Holy Place: The Elijah Pierce Barbershop” (1983) and“Women in Poindexter Village, Button Beaded Book” reflect her autobiographical narratives, celebrating both personal relationships and broader African American community life.

Robinson's work is a highlight of the Columbus Museum of Art's collection. The exhibition includes works such as“Untitled [Man on horse]” (date unknown), made from beads, bells, wood, hair, found objects, thread, fabric, and hogmawg, measuring 24 x 24 x 9 inches;“A Holy Place: The Elijah Pierce Barbershop” (1983), created with buttons, beads, wood, found objects, hair, thread, and fabric, measuring 30 x 102 inches; and various“Button Beaded Dolls” from around 1988.

Source: This Is Colossal

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