Surely, she (he/we) is a little animal? is a chronological visual exploration of the cross generational and long term impact of imperialism and colonialism. In each of the six mixed media on wood panel works Robles-Gordon begins with the transatlantic slave trade and leads the viewer on a panoramic sweep contemplating the modern-day systems and infrastructures that continue to uplift colonialism and imperialism.
Join Sarah Gordon, Amber Robles-Gordon, Jack Rasmussen, and Maria Amelia Viteri for a discussion about the exhibition, unpacking and situating the show through the lens of human ecology and the intersections of animal protection, child welfare, civil rights, human rights, Movement of Black Lives, colonialism and imperialism. Together we will further contextualize the exhibition within the current struggle for human rights for all.
Montgomery Brawl, 2023, 40"x44", mixed media collage on wood panel
A Panel Discussion of AMBER ROBLES-GORDON's solo exhibition with SARAH GORDON, AMBER ROBLES-GORDON, JACK RASMUSSEN, MARIA AMELIA VITERI
Saturday, November 4th, 2023 from 1:00-2:00 pm.
Please RSVP to info@mortonfineart.com
Contact the gallery for viewing by appointment, price list, additional information and acquisition.
(202) 628-2787 (call or text)
Click to view video of AMBER ROBLES-GORDON's solo exhibition Surely, she (he/we) is a little animal?
Video credit: Jarrett Hendrix
End the Slave Patrol: Fund All Communities, 2023, 40"x44", mixed media collage on wood panel
About SARAH GORDON
Museum Specialist, Visual Art
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Sarah Gordon is museum specialist in visual art at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. She previously served as curator at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and research associate in the department of photographs at the National Gallery of Art. In addition, she has curated exhibitions of photography and contemporary art at the Art Museum of the Americas and American University Museum; consulted on public and private collections in the US and abroad; and taught art history and museum studies at Smith College, American University, and George Washington University. Gordon’s book, Indecent Exposures: Eadweard Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion Nudes, was published by Yale Press in 2015. She received her PhD in art history from Northwestern University in 2006.
About AMBER ROBLES-GORDON
Amber Robles-Gordon (b. Puerto Rico) 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, Hyperallergic, Ebony.com, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, Huffington Post, Bmore Art Magazine, Callaloo Art & Culture in the African Diaspora, Nashville Scene, Sugarcane Magazine, Support Black Art, Bomb Magazine, Indianapolis Recorder 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 Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association (NVFAA), Howard University, James C. Porter Colloquium, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Salisbury University, 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 organizations such as the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, Luther College, WETA Television, Al Jazeera, The Kojo Nnamdi Show, David C. Driskell Center, the Phillips Collection, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Mc Daniel College, Harvey B. Gantt Center, 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.
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 at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In February 2024, Robles-Gordon will be presenting a solo exhibition at Indiana State University.
She has been represented by Morton Fine Art since 2016.
About JACK RASMUSSEN
A native of Seattle, Jack Rasmussen dropped out of college to be an artist, musician, and commercial fisherman in Alaska before returning to Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, to earn his BA in Art. In 1973, Rasmussen moved to Washington, DC, and completed an MFA in Painting, MA in Arts Management, and MA and PhD in Anthropology at American University. He worked in the Education Department of the National Gallery of Art before becoming Assistant Director of the Washington Project for the Arts when it opened in 1975. He left this position to open the Jack Rasmussen Gallery, one of the first commercial galleries to move to downtown Washington, and then helped launch Rockville Arts Place (VisArts), served for ten years as the Executive Director of Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, and three years as Executive Director of di Rosa, a contemporary art museum and sculpture garden in Napa, California. Rasmussen has been Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC, since it opened in 2005. He is past president of the Maryland State Arts Council and the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums.
About MARIA AMELIA VITERI
María Amelia Viteri holds an affiliation as a Research Associate with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland College Park. Viteri has published extensively in English and Spanish for academic audiences and the media to inform public policy and the international development of academic fields. Her work revolves around structural inequalities as mutually constitutive with gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and immigration in the US, Latin America, Caribbean, and Global South. She is the author of Desbordes: Translating Racial, Ethnic, Sexual, and Gender Identities across the Americas. Her latest article is “Untranslatable Wounds: On Colonidad, Cisheteronormativity, and Biculturalism.”
About Morton Fine Art
Founded in 2010 in Washington, DC by curator Amy Morton, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that art collecting can be cultivated through an educational stance, MFA's mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of substantive exhibitions and a welcoming platform for dialogue and exchange of original voice. Morton Fine Art specializes in a stellar roster of nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as has an additional focus on artwork of the African and Global Diaspora.
Morton Fine Art founded the trademark *a pop-up project in 2010. *a pop-up project is MFA's mobile gallery component which hosts temporary curated exhibitions nationally.
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday by appointment.
Morton Fine Art
52 O St NW #302
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 628-2787
For further information and images, please contact Amy Morton: info@mortonfineart.com