About
Originally from Oregon, Robison currently resides in California teaching sculpture and serving as Art Department Chair at the City College of San Francisco. Robison holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Marylhurst University and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Oregon.
Robison’s work has been exhibited at Marrow Gallery, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art and Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in California, Robischon Gallery in Denver, Colorado, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Joseph A Cain Memorial Art Gallery and Greater Denton Arts Council in Texas, Yeiser Art Center in Kentucky, Site:Brooklyn Gallery in New York, Foster/White Gallery, Whatcom Museum and Tacoma Art Museum in Washington, and Peter Robertson Gallery in Alberta Canada.
Robison is represented by Marrow Gallery in San Francisco, California and Foster/White Gallery in Seattle, Washington. Her work can also be found at Robischon Gallery in Denver, Colorado.
Stephanie Robison hugging rocks
photo credit: Shae Rocco
The sculpture of Stephanie Robison plays with multiple oppositional relationships. Working with industrial fabrics and wood, she creates large-scale installations that examine relationships between culture, nature and the built environment.
Her latest series of work combines traditional stone carving and the process of needle felting wool. By merging incongruous materials such as wool and marble, she works to synthesize and fuse: organic and geometric, natural and architectural, handmade and the uniform industrial. Focusing on materiality and color with this new work, Robison creates charming, often humorous or awkward forms referencing aspects of the body, relationships and the environment.
What interests me most about sculpture is how it engages the audience in a physical way. It responds to the body. I love the complexity three-dimensional work has– a sculpture can look completely different from the first view but as you walk around the composition changes. Sculpture for me is about tangibility and transformation. It involves technique, knowledge of materials and practice. Being able to manipulate materials with your hands, transforming it into something else, is a magical process and an extremely educational one. Every time I make something I learn from it and it inspires the next thing. Creating an intimate relationship with materials slows one down and can generate a different level of thinking, one that our convenience-based society does not often engage in. Exploring materials with your hands also activates body or muscle memory – a different way of storing knowledge. Making and focusing on craft has the ability to conjure up collective material knowledge and experiences. It causes one to reevaluate objects; how things are made takes on new meaning.
I work in a variety of material but stone is always there as a constant. I like using materials that are familiar in unexpected ways. I have always been attracted to forms that are in direct opposition to each other or challenge their final aesthetic/functional appearance: I have intentionally carved stone to appear soft or sewn fabrics to appear rigid and architectural.