Music video for Welcome To My World, performed by Kindred the Family Soul. Directed by :Konee Rok Styling by :Dapper Afriika shot on location at the African American Museum of Philadelphia, www.kindredthefamilysoul.com Featuring My Rainbow is Enuf by Amber Robles-Gordon
Bio
Amber Robles-Gordon, has over fifteen years of exhibiting, art education, and exhibition coordinating experience. She received a Bachelor of Science, Business Administration in 2005 at Trinity University, and subsequently a Master’s in Fine Arts (Painting) in 2011 from Howard University, Washington, DC. At Howard University she received annual awards and accolades for her artwork.
She has exhibited nationally and in Germany, Italy, Malaysia, London, and Spain. Robles-Gordon is proficient in American Sign-Language and has traveled throughout the US, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Northern Africa, and Southeast Asia. Her exhibitions and artwork has been reviewed and/or featured in the Washington Post, Washington City Paper, Washington Informer, Examiner, WAMU American University Radio, WPFW 89.3, MSNBC the grio, Hyperallergeric, Ebony.com, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, Huffington Post, Bmore Art Magazine, Callaloo Art & Culture in the African Diaspora, Sugarcane Magazine, Support Black Art, Bomb Magazine and other various publications.
Robles-Gordon was also commissioned to create temporary and permanent public art installations for numerous art fairs and agencies such as the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, DCCAH, Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association (NVFAA), Humanities Council of Washington, D.C., Howard University, James C. Porter Colloquium, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Washington Projects for the Arts, Salisbury University, Martha’s Table, DC Department of General Services and Democracy Fund. Additionally, she has been commissioned and or featured to teach workshops, give commentary, and or present about her artwork by the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, Luther College, WETA Television, Al Jazeera, WPFW 89.3fm, WAMU | American University Radio, The Kojo Nnamdi Show, Howard University James A. Porter Colloquium, David C. Driskell Center, the Phillips Collection, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Mc Daniel College, Salisbury University, Harvey B. Gantt Center, American University, and National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Throughout her career, she serves as an advocate for the Washington, DC area arts community. From November 2004 through July 2012, Robles-Gordon has been an active member of the Black Artists DC, (BADC) serving as exhibitions coordinator, Vice President and President. BADC, a 20-year old member organization of individuals of Black-Afrikan ancestry, includes artists, arts administrators, educators, dealers, collectors, museum directors, curators, gallery owners, and arts enthusiasts. Robles-Gordon is also the Co-Founder of Delusions of Grandeur Artist Collective.
In 2010, Robles-Gordon was granted apprenticeship to create a public art installation with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the D.C. Creates Public Arts Program. In 2012, Robles-Gordon was selected to present for the Under the Influence competition as part of the 30 Americans Exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
In 2016, Robles-Gordon was selected for a teaching residency by the Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano, Back to the Roots, in Limon, Costa Rica. In 2017, she was awarded an additional teaching residency with Washington Projects for the Arts and DC Public Schools. In 2018, Robles-Gordon spent two weeks in Thailand studying and photographing Thai art and culture. In January 2019, Robles-Gordon completed a two-week Artist/Scholar residency at the American Academy, Rome, AAR, Italy. At the end of this residency, Robes-Gordon was granted the opportunity to exhibit her completed work at AAR.
Further, in July 2019, she completed a two-month artist-in-residence and temporary public art commission, titled Fertile Grounds: Of Minds, Wombs, and of the Earth, at the Nicholson Project, artist residency program. In fall 2019, Robles-Gordon, was commissioned by DC Department of General Services, for a public artwork at the Ida B. Wells Middle School, DC Public Schools.
In July 2020, Robles-Gordon will be featured in the first online solo exhibition, Place of Breath and Birth, at Galleria de Arte, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, (Sacred Heart University), in her birthplace of San Juan, Puerto Rico, (PR). In October, 2020 the Place of Breath and Birth Series was presented by Tafeta Gallery in 1-54 Contemporary African Art fair in London, England, alongside their new digital initiative 1-54 Online, powered by Christie’s. In fall 2021, solo exhibition, Successions: Traversing US Colonialism, at American University, Katzen Art Center from August 28 - December 12, 2021.
In 2021, the Place of Breath and Birth series was presented by Tafeta during London Art Week. Additionally, the work y mi bandera vuela mas alto que la tuya, (and my flag flies higher than yours) which is a part of the same series was selected by Yinka Shonibare to be apart of the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in London, England.
January 8 - February 8, 2022, the Place of Breath and Birth series was featured at the Derek Ellery Gallery in New York.
May of 2022, Robles-Gordon solo exhibit titled soveREIGNty: acts, forms and measures of protest and resistance will be featured at Tinney Contemporary in Knoxville, Tennessee. September Robles-Gordon was a semifinalist for the Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize.
In December 2022, Tafeta Gallery, London England featured Robles-Gordon’s site specific installation at Untitled Art Fair. At which Robles-Gordon was featured as Best Booth at Untitled Art in Art News. Robles-Gordon was also invited to exhibit an additional installation, titled At the Altar: Dance of the Serpants at Prizm Art Fair during Art Basel Miami 2022.
Currently Robles-Gordon is creating a traveling exhibition in collaboration with Cultural DC and El Cuadrado Gris Galeria in Puerto Rico. Upon completion the exhibition will be presented in both Washington, DC and Puerto Rico in 2024. Additionally in October 2023 her artwork will be a part of Puerto Rico Negrx, exhibition at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico in San Juan Puerto Rico. In January 2024, Robles-Gordon will be presenting a solo exhibition at Indiana State University.
A. Robles-Gordon, The Nicholson Project Residency, Washington, DC, 2019
Paint Chips I, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2016, Kohl Gallery, MD
At the Altar: From the Fruit of My Love and Labor, Installation, Media on Canvas, 108 in., x 120 in. at Delaware State University, Dover, DE
Artist Statement
Amber Robles-Gordon is an interdisciplinary visual artist of Puerto Rican and Caribbean descent who resides in Washington, DC. Her creations are visual representations of her hybridism: a fusion of her gender, ethnicity, cultural, political and social experiences and concerns.
The underpinnings of her creations are imbued to reveal racial injustice and the paradoxes within the imbalance of masculine and feminine energies within our society. Known for recontextualizing non-traditional materials, her large scale assemblages, sculptures, collages, installations, and public artwork, in order to emphasize the essentialness of spirituality and temporality within life.
Robles-Gordon is driven by the need to construct her own distinctive path, innovate, peal back the layers of injustice and challenge social norms, hence her artwork is unconventional and non-formulaic.