ROBIN TEWES

ARTIST BIO

Robin Tewes has exhibited nationally and internationally and was included in the Smithsonian Museum’s Archives of American Art in 2016. Her work has been shown in numerous museum exhibitions, including Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Boca Raton Museum of Art, New-York Historical Society, Smithsonian Institution, Islip Art Museum, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Bedford Art Museum, National Academy of Art, Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Hunterdon Art Museum, Pelham Art Center, Whitney Museum, Norton Museum of Art, Tampa Museum of Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, Edward Hopper House Museum, L.A.C.E., Art in General, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, The Drawing Center, Corcoran Gallery of Art, MoMA, MoMA P.S.1, Contemporary Arts Center, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Hera Gallery, and Payne Gallery.

Her solo exhibitions include presentations at Leake Gallery, Payne Gallery, The Untitled Space, Wright Gallery, Adam Baumgold Gallery, Figensten Gallery, Spencertown Academy of Arts, Queens College, Bill Maynes Gallery, John Weber Gallery, Rutgers University, Art in General, Sorkin Gallery, and Toni Birckhead Gallery. Selected group exhibitions have taken place at The Untitled Space, Art House, Tabla Rasa Gallery, Hewitt Gallery, Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York Museum, Headbones Gallery, A.I.R. Gallery, Golden Foundation, Peterson Gallery, Sara Nightingale Gallery, KMOCA, Seaport Gallery, Emily Harvey Foundation, Artists Space, P.P.O.W. Gallery, Pelham Art Center, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Grand Salon, Art in General, and Thread Waxing Space.

Her work has been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times (Roberta Smith, William Zimmer, Vivien Raynor, Ken Johnson), Artforum (Ronny Cohen, Donald Kuspit), Brooklyn Rail (Mira Schor), Art in America (Ingrid Schaffner), Art News (Cynthia Nadelman, Barbara Pollock, David Kirby, Henry Gerrit), New York Magazine (Edith Newhall), Arts Magazine (Gretchen Faust), Tema Celeste (Maria Damianovic, Carrie Rickey), SoHo News (Gerald Mazorati), and The Village Voice (Kim Levin), among others.

Tewes is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Orlowsky/Freed Foundation Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Abbey Mural Workshop Fellowship, Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant, NYFA Fellowship, Mid Atlantic Arts Award, and Artist Space Grant. Her residency honors include VCCA, Vermont Studio Center, Golden Foundation, Byrdcliffe, Ucross Foundation, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Artist House.

From 1985 to 2001, she was a member of the anonymous feminist collective Guerrilla Girls, working under the name “Alice Neel.” She was also a founding member of P.S. 122 Painting Space in 1975 and currently serves on its Board of Directors.


ARTIST STATEMENT

I am fascinated by how a single narrative moment can reveal profound truths about who we are.
At first glance, my work may appear ordinary, but nothing within it is ever quite what it seems. Many pieces contain backgrounds etched with images and words, scratched into the walls of imagined rooms. These marks carry a quiet tension: they are both contradictory and deeply integrated, much like the layers of human consciousness itself.

I often work on an intimate scale, or with intricate detail, to draw viewers closer. As viewers move in, shifting narratives begin to surface. Written phrases, obscured imagery, and recurring motifs such as brick, plants, crumpled paper, windows, sky, invite them to look again and reconsider what they thought they saw. These elements reveal the surreal subtleties hidden in the mundane and peripheral experiences of contemporary life.

My practice centers on exploring paradoxical truths, supported by psychological theory woven into the accompanying short stories. Many of my characters are drawn from people I know, grounding the work in lived, human experience.

My longstanding engagement with class and gender issues is deeply tied to my history. As an original Guerrilla Girl, I helped challenge the art world’s entrenched inequalities and expose the systemic barriers that shape artistic visibility. That experience profoundly shaped my understanding of activism, storytelling, and the power of subversion. It continues to inform my artistic investigation today, guiding my interest in under-examined social and political concerns.

Ultimately, I want my paintings to be accessible. By rooting them in personal reference, I aim for them to resonate universally, inviting each viewer to recognize something of themselves in the unfolding narrative moment.