STATEMENT
STATEMENT
My work is born from a primal fascination with the body of the woman-artist, and it’s physical, emotional, and political presence in our world. A life spent travelling and moving from place to place, has led to an unrelenting desire to understand, become connected to, and interact with, my shifting surroundings. Often, this process can be challenging, inducing feelings of fear, anxiety, and a sense of unbelonging. To navigate these emotions, I make images featuring the recurring motif of the covered, disguised, or faceless figure.
Most recently, my practice, and my life, have been forever changed. Pregnancy, childbirth, and the ongoing (and never-ending) experience of motherhood have prompted me to create in different ways. A combination of highly-personal materials, such as mine and my partner’s fallen hair, our out-grown clothes, and pillows from our bed, are used to give sensual fabric installations weight and form. Not only do these fabric forms exist as sculptural installations but are also found within the images I create. This inward/outward doubling reflects the complex feelings of ambivalence associated with motherhood: Often it feels like my body has been given over to another, it is no longer mine; at the same time, I know it to be a site of tremendous strength, power, and creative expression.
Through my work I hope to explore the sometimes problematic yet celebratory aspects of being a mother-artist.
BIO
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to a Canadian mother and Welsh father, Robyn LeRoy-Evans spent much of her early life on the move. She bounced between the U.S. and Canada a few times, enjoyed a brief stint Down Under, and finally settled in the U.K., where she received most of her formal education. After earning a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art from Sheffield Hallam University, she desired a fresh start in an unfamiliar city. A Google search revealed that New Orleans may be the kind of place she was longing for…
Two weeks after making the decision to move, she touched down at Louis Armstrong International Airport, not knowing a soul, yet fiercely determined to carve out a new life for herself as an artist. Four years later it seems she has put down some strong roots: Robyn is now a member of an artist-run gallery, The Front; has met the love of her life; and most recently, has become a mother.
Motherhood is unfolding into one of her greatest and most inspiring adventures yet.
Currently, she is working toward her Artist Residency in Motherhood, and opened her first solo show A Growing Dance, in October 2017.
CURRICULUM VITAE
EDUCATION
Oct '09-'12
BA (Hons) Fine Art with First Class Honours, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK
Sept '06-'07
Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Bucks New University, Buckinghamshire, UK
UPCOMING
February 10 - March 4 Honey Trap, The Front, New Orleans, USA
PAST EXHIBITIONS & PERFORMANCES
Dec - Jan'17 Clickbait, The Front, New Orleans, USA
Nov - Dec'17 Femaissance, Oleander on Royal, New Orleans, USA
Nov - Dec'17 Full House, The Front, New Orleans, USA
Oct - Nov'17 A Growing Dance, The Front, New Orleans, USA (solo show)
Aug - Oct'17 Louisiana Contemporary Presented by The Helis Foundation, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, USA
Sept'17 Nasty Women UK, Stour Space, Hackney Wick, London, UK
June'17 FARE THEE WELL Postcard Show, The Arts Center, Coravallis, Oregon, USA
May'17 The People's City, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Feb'17 I'm Your Cannibal, The Front, New Orleans, USA
Jan'17 I [Love] America and America [Loves] Me, Box13 ArtSpace, Houston, USA
Oct'16 Bad Behaviour Open 2016, Brixton East, London, UK
May'16 Beneath, I Am Moving (live performance), L’Entrepôt, New Orleans, USA
May'16 GUTS & VIGOR, L’Entrepôt, New Orleans, USA (dual show with Dianne Lee).
March'16 More Issues Than Vogue, Parse, New Orleans, USA
Nov'14 Body Sculpture II (live performance), The Front, New Orleans, USA
Nov'14 Oppositions and Parallels, The Front, New Orleans, USA
Sept'14 Body Sculpture (live performance), RUD AIR, Laxarby, Sweden
April'14 godsbridgeX, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, UK
March'14 ESPY PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD 2014, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, UK
Feb'14 FABRICATE, Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, UK
Oct'13 neo:graduates2013, neo:gallery22, Bolton, UK
Sept'13 Object Abuse, Spinach, London, UK
Aug'13 VIDEOHOLICA, Varna, Bulgaria (screening of Bruised)
July'13 Nástupište Postcard Exchange, Topolcany, Slovakia
June'13 Assemblance, Bloc Studios, Sheffield, UK
Nov'12 The Restless Image, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield, UK (dual show with Sophie Goddard).
June'12 Spectrum, Arundel Gate Court, Sheffield, UK
March'12 Photography, AGC Gallery, Sheffield, UK
March'11 Presence/Absence, The Showroom, Sheffield, UK
RESIDENCIES
May'17 - Present ARIM (Artist Residency in Motherhood: A self-directed, open-source artist residency to empower and inspire artists who are also mothers, created by Lenka Clayton)
Aug'14 RUD AIR, artist-in-residence, Laxarby, Sweden
June'12 SIA Graduate Residency, Sheffield, UK
PROJECTS
April'13 – April'14 The God’s Bridge Project, UK
A group project initiated by ARTworks in Teesdale, and mentored by renowned sculptor Tania Kovats. Ten artists (Ewan Allinson, Henna Asikainen, Charli Clark, Lesley Hicks, Hannah Leighton-Boyce, Robyn LeRoy-Evans, Steve Messam, Bryony Purvis, Gillian Tallentire, and Suzanne Williams) were asked to produce individual artistic responses to God’s Bridge, a naturally occurring geological feature of the Teesdale countryside.
Oct'12 – Present Form(ed), Canada/UK
Form(ed) is a cross-disciplinary investigation, exploring the bond between the vessel and the female figure. Clay vessels are made by Canadian ceramic artist Dianne Lee, and then re-worked or ‘unmade’, by visual artist Robyn LeRoy-Evans, before they are finally dried and fired. Both artists use their own body as the primary tool whilst forming and un-forming these sculptures.
AWARDS
March'14 ESPY PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD 2014, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, UK (finalist)
June'13 Grand Prix de Découverte, shortlisted, Paris, France
May'13 FotoFilmic’13, shortlisted, Vancouver, Canada
PRESS
Review of A Growing Dance at The Front, by D. Eric Bookhardt, October 29, 2017
DOCUMENTARIES
July'13 “Bloc Projects”, for Regular Line: Nástupište – Sheffield, screened in Topolcany, Slovakia
PUBLICATIONS
ARTworks in Teesdale, ARTSCAPES, 2014
neo:gallery 22, neo:graduates2013 [exhibition catalogue], 2013
Hideyuki Mayusumi, preproom, with Bridget Collins, Robyn LeRoy-Evans, and Hideyuki Mayusumi, 2013 (an independent zine project initiated by Japanese photographer Hideyuki Mayusumi).
COLLECTIONS
Toronto, Canada, private collection.
London, United Kingdom, private collection.
New Orleans, USA, private collection.
RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE
Aug’16 – Present Member Artist, The Front, New Orleans, USA
