On Her Work

In this lecture, Robin Tewes reflects on the intersection of her painting practice and her engagement with feminist institutional critique. Moving between the studio and collective action, she will discuss how figurative painting can register lived experience, labor, and structures of power, while also participating in broader conversations about visibility and equity in the art world. Drawing on her involvement with the Guerrilla Girls and her long history in artist-run spaces, Tewes considers how sustained studio practice and activism inform one another across decades of work.

Robin Tewes is a New York–based painter and educator whose work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally, including at MoMA, P.S.1, the Whitney Museum, the Drawing Center, and is in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. A founding member of P.S.122 Painting Space in 1975, she has been active in artist-run initiatives throughout her career. Tewes was also a member of the Guerrilla Girls, the feminist collective known for exposing gender and racial inequities in the art world. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, and numerous other publications.