Aminah Robinson

Biography

Aminah Robinson was born in 1940. She raised in Columbus, Ohio, in the close-knit community of Poindexter Village. She received her formal art training at the Columbus Art School (now the Columbus College of Art & Design) and was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellows grant in 2004. Additional fellowships and grants she received include awards from the Ohio Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and a Residency Fellowship from PS 1 in Long Island City, New York. Robinson was prolific her entire life. Her diverse body of work ranges from drawings and woodcuts to complex sculptures made from natural and synthetic materials, such as twigs, carved leather, music boxes, and “Hogmawg,” a material composed of mud, grease, dyes and glue. Aminah Robinson is represented in museums and galleries, including the Columbus Museum of Art, Akron Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. She passed away in May 2015.

Press

Overlooked No More: Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, Whose Art Chronicled Black Life; New York Times, 2021

‘Raggin’ On,’ Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson At Columbus (Ohio) Museum Of Art; Forbes, 2021

Buttons, beads and bravado: Celebrating the simple joy in Aminah Robinson’s art; NPR, 2021

The Late Artist Aminah Robinson Dedicated Her Life to Recovering America’s Lost History. At Last, She’s Finding a Bigger Audience; ArtNet News, 2020

Columbus Artist Explains How Poindexter Village Influenced Her; WBNS, 2017

Columbus Museum of Art honors city’s bicentennial with new works by Columbus artist Aminah Robinson; ArtDaily, 2012

Coleman inducts three into Columbus Hall of Fame; Columbus Dispatch, 2012

Visions of Africa and Ohio in all sorts of materials; New York Times, 2006

Robinson’s Diverse Art Chronicles African-American Culture; Art News, 2006