The Queens-born, New York City-based artist Robin Tewes, known since the early 1980s for her representational paintings of frozen and narrative-like moments, has shown her work in numerous solo exhibitions as well as museums including P.S. 1, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and The Drawing Center. Tewes paints everyday people and domestic interiors in a precise, almost deadpan style that Artforum critic Ronny Cohen called “searingly direct” in its presentation of information and emotional impact. She often incorporates subtle, graffiti-like text into her paintings, suggesting pointed or disquieting thoughts, conversations or social commentary on the scene being portrayed. ARTnews’ Barbara Pollack described Tewes’s work as maintaining “an edgy balance between surrealism and soap opera.” In addition to her art practice, Tewes has worked as an educator, lecturer, curator and activist. She has contributed socially-minded works to numerous exhibitions and benefits focusing on issues including women’s reproductive rights, human trafficking, aggression, environmentalism, and the Iraq War. Tewes has long been rumored to be one of the original members of the controversial, anonymous feminist collective the Guerrilla Girls, known as member “Alice Neel.”

Robin Tewes was born in Queens New York in 1950. She received her BFA from Hunter College in 1978 and her MST from Pace University in 2012. She is the recipient of many notable and prestigious awards, including the 2008 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Painting Award, the 2007 Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Award, and the 2004 and 1989 New York Foundation for the Arts-Painting. Selected solo exhibitions include Wright Gallery, Adam Baumgold Gallery, Headbones Gallery, Klapper Hall Gallery, Bill Maynes Gallery, John Weber Gallery. Some group exhibitions include: at P.S. 1, P.S. 122 Painting Association, The Drawing Center, Aldridge Museum, Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Hunterdon Museum. Tewes is interested in how much a single narrative moment can tell us about ourselves. Became a founding member of P.S122 Painting Association and now on the Board of Directors. She has been included recently in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Her work has been recognized and written about in NY Times, Village Voice, The Drawing Society, Soho News, Artforum, Artiness, Art in America, Tema Celeste, and Arts to name a few.

View her profile and follow her exhibitions and artwork on ARTSY.