Kenya (Robinson) (born 1977) is an American multimedia artist whose work includes performance, sculpture and installation.Penelope Green

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', April 13, 2011. Raised in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

, (Robinson)'s work depicts themes of privilege and consumerism, exploring perceptions of gender, race and ability.Lee Ann Norman
"Kenya (Robinson),"
''

Bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...

'', March 20, 2013. Combining a variety of audio-visual elements and live performance, (Robinson)'s work has been shown at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

The Kitchen The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary avant-garde performance and experimental art institution located at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was founde ...

, The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, and the 60 Wall Street Gallery of Deutsche Bank. She has lectured at

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges ...

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...

, and the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

.Kenya (Robinson)
Curriculum Vitae.
/ref> An established blogger and Arts and Culture contributor to the

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

, (Robinson), who chooses to have her last name placed in parentheses, documents her work on her Instagram account kenya9. She earned her MFA in Sculpture from the School of Art at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 2013.

Early life and education

Born in

Landstuhl, Germany Landstuhl () is a town in the Kaiserslautern district of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It is the seat of ''Verbandsgemeinde Landstuhl'', a kind of "collective municipality." Landstuhl is situated on the north-west edge of the Palatinate F ...

, in 1977, (Robinson) grew up and attended schools in

, including Lincoln Middle School, Gainesville High School and the

.Aida Mallard
"The Art of Black Hair and Politics,"
''

Gainesville Sun ''The Gainesville Sun'' () is a newspaper published daily in Gainesville, Florida, United States, covering the North-Central portion of the state. The paper is published by Lynni Henderson, the paper's Executive Editor is Douglas Ray and the edi ...

'', January 17, 2010. Her father worked in the military and (Robinson) has described her mother as being a "great beauty and bibliophile." In 2001, (Robinson) enrolled in the apparel design and production program at Los Angeles Trade Technical College where she earned an associate degree.Macarena Deij Prado
"Q&A with Visiting Artist Kenya (Robinson),"
''In The Loop'', March 9, 2015. After working for a few years as a freelance fashion designer in both

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, (Robinson) began working as a studio assistant for visual artist Mike Cloud. In 2009 (Robinson) began the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's WorkSpace Residency, allowing her to focus on her burgeoning multi-media artistic practice. It is also during this time that she started her blog, which has documented her life and work from 2009 to present. In 2011, despite not having a bachelor's degree, (Robinson) began her

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in Sculpture at

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

. The artist has had this to say of her decision to attend the Ivy League institution: (Robinson)'s mother passed away during her first month of her MFA at Yale, an event which the artist states greatly influenced her time there. In 2011 (Robinson) was the subject of the short form documentary "I Have The Right" by Jenny Lam.

Works

2008-2010

From her earliest major pieces, (Robinson) engaged with a variety of mediums and subjects. In 2008, the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts in

Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn () is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county i ...

, featured her work in a solo exhibition, entitled "HAIRPOLITIC: The Pursuit of Nappiness'. The exhibition, in exploring contemporary perspectives on hair, "addressed the unwritten rules and politics of culture and how they affect what we consider beautiful." Two years later, (Robinson) produced a variation of HAIRPOLITIC as a solo exhibition at the Thomas Center in her hometown of Gainesville. This exhibition, "HAIRPOLITIC: Pomade in America," featured some work from her earlier exhibit, but also incorporated new

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

. In addition to these solo displays, (Robinson)'s work appeared in a number of group exhibitions during this time in

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. She also had a number of performance art pieces featured in notable venues, including the

, the Wall Street Gallery,

Recess Activities Recess Art is a publicly accessible nonprofit artist work and exhibition space located in a street-level storefront at 46 Washington Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, New York City. Free of charge and open to the public, Recess facilitates ever ...

, and the

Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), is a museum of contemporary art located at 80 Hanson Place in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York City. It is the first museum of its kind to be opened in New York. History MoCADA was founded i ...

2011-2012

In 2011, (Robinson)'s work was featured in a third solo exhibition at a branch of the

Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is the public library system of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is the sixteenth largest public library system in the United States by holding and the seventh by number of visitors. Like the two othe ...

, entitled "All Over the Place." While her visual work was also featured in a number of group exhibitions in New York, 2011 and 2012 saw (Robinson) engage in an increasing number of major performance art pieces. Her work,"kenya eats a cracker," at

the Kitchen The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary avant-garde performance and experimental art institution located at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was founde ...

, featured the artist eating a variety of cracker brands in a yellow raincoat. Her piece prompted praise from at least one critic. Andrew Russeth wrote that "(Robinson) seems wonderfully out of touch with the times," by ignoring the trend among performance artists to showcase the "glorification of long-term suffering ... or the celebration of middlebrow interactivity."Andrew Russeth
"Kenya (Robinson) Eats a Cracker in the Kitchen,"
''16 Miles of String'', March 27, 2011. Russeth went on to write that (Robinson) "twists the codes that govern our basic needs — shelter and food — in ambiguous ways and pushes them toward the precarious point when they may break."

The Inflatable Mattress

From February 1 - May 3, 2011, (Robinson) conducted a "13-week-long performance piece, in which she offered herself up as a guest (10 hours of housework included, but the host must supply the toothpaste) to anyone who would have her." Robinson traveled with an inflatable mattress as well as "appropriate linens and towels." Her proposal was sent out by e-mail to artist colleagues in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. (Robinson) documented her interactions with her hosts and her reflections on the experience on a blog, including movie recommendations, required readings, and a log of the toothpaste used at each residence. The project was detailed by the New York Times in the piece "The Serial Sleepover Artist," by Penelope Green.

2013-present

Recent years have seen (Robinson)'s work continue to be featured in exhibitions in New York City, but her performative work has also taken her to other parts of the country, including Maine, Nebraska and the US Virgin Islands. Her sculpture "Commemorative Headdress of Her Journey Beyond Heaven" is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture An installation of several works won the 2018 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. Alex Rich wrote "Kenya's work is important. It takes a novel and memorable approach to the perennial, historical, and — sadly even here in 2018 — still too relevant theme of white straight male privilege. Any viewer who takes the time to engage with her work will be left reconceptualizing his or her own place in that hierarchy of gender and race and in the fitful journey toward inclusiveness."

CHEEKY LaSHAE

CHEEKY LaSHAE, described as a "fluid-identity karaoke singer," is a performance art piece which (Robinson) began in 2013 following the completion of her MFA.Charlie Schmidlin
"CHEEKY LaSHAE Marries Karaoke, Puppetry, and Performance Art,"
''Creators Project'', July 8, 2015. A reaction to the feeling of being "forced into a box" by her education, CHEEKY consists of a costume, worn by both (Robinson) and rotating audience members, in which one's face is entirely masked by a box like shape that leaves only the lower half of the body uncovered. CHEEKY's emphasis on audience participation in her "Karaoke Universal" shows stems from (Robinson)'s belief that "everyone, even the spotlight-phobic, is a performer."Carey Dunne
"At Karaoke Universal, CHEEKY LaSHAE Wants YOU to Be a Performance Artist,"
'' Brooklyn Magazine'', July 20, 2015. "Whether you're performing femininity, masculinity, shyness, or extroversion, all of our movements in a social space are performative in nature, whether you're a performance artist or not," (Robinson) states. (Robinson) is currently experimenting with projection mapping onto CHEEKY LaSHAE's costume during performance.CHEEKYLaSHAE.com
/ref>

The #WHITEMANINMYPOCKET project

#WHITEMANINMYPOCKET, a project that began in 2013, is a work in which (Robinson) carries around a small figurine of a white male in her pocket with the goal of reminding herself: "you are more privileged than you think, no matter your gender, socioeconomic status or the color of your skin."Priscilla Frank

''

'', April 3, 2015. When (Robinson) began the project the white man figurine lived publicly online through her Instagram account with a hashtag and series of photos that document its daily goings-on. As interest in the project has grown, (Robinson) has begun making a "tiny army of pocket-sized white men" figurines, which she often refers to as "talismen" and "charms." Kenya spoke about the piece to the Huffington Post in 2015, stating that: "As someone who strongly identifies as a black, American person, all of the violence inflicted upon black bodies -- verbally, emotionally, physically, spiritually -- it's really overwhelming. I needed something. I needed to create privilege for myself because every message that I was receiving told me I wasn't privileged at all. But, you know what? I am breathing. I am able to express myself in a positive way. That is a big privilege, but sometimes I forget that."

Awards and residencies

* 2018 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art * 2015 Creative Capital 'On Our Radar' (March – September 2015) Award, Triangle Arts Residency, Fountainhead Residency'' * 2014 ''Bemis Center for Contemporary Art Residency'' * 2011-2013 ''ANALOG: Recess Activities, Inc., Online Residency, Smack Mellon 'Hot Picks' Artist Award.'' * 2009- 2010 ''Visiting Artist, Harvestworks, WorkSpace Residency, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Triangle Arts Workshop Residency''