Robin Glassman

Biography

Dear Friends at NY Artists Circle:

It is a privilege to continue to share the art of my beloved spouse and deeply creative artist, Robin Glassman (1959-2021).

I have decided to leave the statement below as she wrote it as I continue to honor her life and art.  

Robin Glassman lived in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood in Brooklyn beginning in 1990 with Prospect Park and Brooklyn Botanic Garden the main source of inspiration and a place to forage natural materials. “Walking in nature helps me to think clearly, solve problems and meditate - all essential for well-being. Further to that end, in 2007 we bought an 1803 farmhouse with 5 acres of land in upstate New York. Spending time with the waterfall that lives on our property has influenced my relationship with flowing water. I also now have access to magical woods without leaving my home."

In 2018, Glassman was invited to be the first artist to have a solo exhibition at the Charles Hallac Art Gallery at Memorial Sloan Kettering. She has exhibited her collages, drawings, paintings, assemblages, and installations at Ivy Brown Gallery in a 2017 solo show and in 2002, curated a two-person exhibition to compliment The NY Guitar Festival at Merkin Concert Hall Gallery. Her works have been shown at Brooklyn Bridge State Park, BRIC, and numerous other venues around Brooklyn and Manhattan.  In the Hudson Valley, she showed mixed-media sculptures at J.J. Newberry's for the 2019 International Sculpture Day Saugerties and created a site-specific installation for the 2009 Kingston Biennial. Her art has also been shown at SUNY Ulster, Stone Ridge, and Greene County Council on the Arts, Catskill, NY.

Artist statement

I am inspired and influenced by illness, travels, and an obsession with collecting. My playful and, sometimes, spiritual art pieces evolve organically through spontaneous mark-making and meditation. By combining biomorphic shapes with intricate details, my intention is to meld the natural world with the more abstract and surreal one. These artworks are layered and tactile, eclectic and exploratory, metaphoric and poetic, compelling the viewer to look closely to create their own personal narrative.

My latest series transforms unfinished collages from the 90s and 00s into new abstractions. The act of returning to these earlier works has given me the freedom to build up layers and take risks. By spontaneously exploring and incorporating recently collected materials, the original germ of an idea regenerates and is given a new life!

These mixed media drawings, paintings, and collages include art materials such as colored pencils, ink, markers, acrylic paint, watercolors, crayons. They also incorporate assorted collected materials, beads, greeting cards, old calendars and magazine images, napkins, paper tape, PET scans, capsules, plastic oxygen tubing, and bits and pieces from old drawings.