#ArtInjection: Helen Robinson is an artist based out of Brooklyn, NY. She received her bachelor’s degree in Studio Art and Art History at Vanderbilt University in 2013 and continues to build her own body of work at her studio in Brooklyn. Helen’s work focuses on conceptual portraiture that explores the nature of representation and the limitless potential of the human figure as a subject. She uses non-traditional portraiture to consider modes of representation and self-expression. Her paintings are all derived from photographs and studies and are mostly documentary in style. Overall, Helen’s work expresses human connection and social interactions based on our relationship to our surroundings and one another.
Helen Robinson paints women I know, or at least, she paints women I feel like I know. Her contemporary women wear their activism on their sleeve, literally. The artist paints her figures in t-shirts bearing poignant slogans like, “Command Respect,” and “Our Minds, Our Bodies, Our Power.” I also love the snarky, “Bite Me.” Over the last few years, feminist t-shirts have witnessed a resurgence in popularity. Robinson attributes this trend to a cultural shift; women want to announce their feminism to the world. It is integral to their identity.
