The Poetry Project

Kenya (Robinson)

Kenya (Robinson) is a community-taught artist from Gainesville, Florida. A socialite, philanthropist, producer, and international southerner, (Robinson) investigates gender, consumerism, and ability through unexpected performative actions and sculptural gestures. (Robinson) is incredibly committed to his craft, from her 13-week couch surfing performance work, The Inflatable Mattress, to the #WHITEMANINMYPOCKET, in which the artist carried a small, corporate-clad, plastic figure as a talismanic reminder that “whiteness is an idea not restricted to phenotype, gender, orientation, or nationality.” Similarly, (Robinson)’s work seeks to help his audience reevaluate their place in the hierarchy of gender, race, and privilege. In 2018, (Robinson) won the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art, presented by The Orlando Museum of Art and underwritten by Gail and Michael Winn. Her sculptural work has been exhibited at Pioneer Works, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Aljira, and the 60 Wall Street Gallery of Deutsche Bank. His sculpture, Commemorative Headdress of Her Journey Beyond Heaven, was acquired by the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture for its permanent collection. (Robinson) has been a contributor to the Huffington Post, Modern Painters, and the Opinion section of The New York Times. (Robinson) won an Emerging Artist Grant from the Rema Hort Mann Foundation in 2015 and is currently working on an animated series titled TOONSKIN, while developing BLIXEL, a stock image collection featuring people of African descent.