Conversations with Amber Robles-Gordon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Robles-Gordon.

Hi Amber, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I am a visual artist, a creator. I’ve known I wanted to be an artist since I was 8. My mother diligently set out to impart the innate importance of creating for myself and my younger brother throughout our childhood. Hence, creating and expressing myself through artwork became essential to who I am. After high school, I planned to get my undergraduate degree in business and then continue to attain a master’s in fine degree. My rationale was I needed to be able to run a business first. I graduated from Howard University with an MFA in 2011. I taught yoga and Pilates for 11 years and taught art while pursuing my artist career.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Although I have been very fortunate to have been aware of what I wanted to become. Knowing the “what” doesn’t always mean you know how you will accomplish the actual goal or task. In my opinion, beyond having artistic ability/talent, so much of becoming an artist is about your drive, ability to persevere, and level of determination one has. I have been through my share of struggles throughout my life. Yet some of the struggles have also been my greatest triumphs from raising my son into this world and contributing to him being a grown human being who is now leading his own life. Also, being a woman of color in a male-dominated industry has provided for some tough days. Yet, I had to push forward, walk into rooms or circumstances, and stand tall to claim I belonged, regardless of past norms and practices within the industry.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a multimedia visual artist known for recontextualizing non-traditional materials with which I create assemblages, collages, large-scale sculptures, installations, and public artwork to emphasize the essentialness of spirituality and temporality within life. My creations are visual representations of hybridism: a fusion of her gender, ethnicity, cultural, and social experiences.

I am driven by the need to construct my distinctive path, innovate, and challenge social norms. My artwork is unconventional and non-formulaic. The underpinnings of my creations are imbued to reveal racial injustice and the paradoxes within our society’s imbalance of masculine and feminine energies.

Currently, I have a solo art exhibition called Sovereignty; Acts, Forms, and Measures of Protest and Resistance at Tinney Contemporary in Nashville, Tennessee. The exhibition features double-sided quilts, large-scale, mixed-media quilts–assemblages incorporating paint, textiles, and hand-stitching–in an interrogation of U.S. policy towards–and governance of–its populated territories and the District of Columbia.

On the front –or “political” of each quilt, I deconstruct the national seals and flags of current U.S. territories to critique the Ill and unequal treatment of U.S. citizens residing there. These abstracted, meditative portals are suspended in black and white planes, a juxtaposition that serves to ground the viewer. While the “spiritual” sides are the inverse: colorful and prismatic, arranged to reflect the visual light spectrum.

https://www.tinneycontemporary.com/sovereignty

I specialize in creative expression. I’m most proud of, appreciative of, or better still grateful that creating still brings me joy, healing, and further understanding of that world we live in.

We’d love to hear what you think about risk-taking?
This is an exciting question because I took what I felt was the biggest risk early in my life. I decided to follow my inner most dream and become an artist. This allowed me to take bite-sized incremental risks for the remainder of my life.

Pricing:

• My prices vary per the size of the artwork, concept, project, public artwork and or art installation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amberroblesgordon.com
• Instagram: @amberroblesgordon
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amberroblesgordon
• Twitter: @aroblesgordon
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AmberRoblesGordonart

Image Credits
The photographs of the quilts was taken by the staff of Tinney Contemporary. Please contact the Gallery manager at joshua@tinneycontemporary.com to determine who to credit the photo to.