News/Press
The Moth Radio Hour
I have a new story airing on The Moth Radio Hour this week in their latest episode "Object of Desire”! It will air on NPR and over 500 radio stations worldwide now through Monday, April 1 before moving to their podcast next week. To live stream from your local public radio station to listen as the story airs, please use the link in my bio. The episode also mentions how my story is connected to my art installation at Bay Area Now 9 currently on view at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Following a nomination process, the SFMoMA announced that I am one of 16 finalists for the biennial award which culminates in an SFMOMA exhibition for a several of Bay Area artists. Read more here.
Bay Area Now 9 is the ninth iteration of YBCA’s signature triennial exhibition highlighting artists working throughout the Bay Area’s nine counties. Each BAN is an attempt to answer the question: What are artists making, thinking, dreaming about right now? Central to BAN—and to YBCA as an institution—is the investment in and platforming of the vibrant creative communities which surround us. Featuring over 30 multidisciplinary artists—a nod to YBCA’s upcoming 30th anniversary—the exhibition features numerous new commissions spanning our campus.
Trina Michelle Robinson: Revival
Catharine Clark Gallery
Media Room: July 22 - September 23, 2023
Opening reception and artist talk: Saturday, July 22 from 1 - 3pm
Exhibition preview
In conversation with Yes, it’s an original, the gallery presents a Media Room screening of Trina Michelle Robinson’s video work in a show titled Revival. A follow-up to Robinson’s acclaimed Emerging Artist Program presentation at the Museum of the African Diaspora, Revival features a suite of three video works that reflect on histories of slavery and emancipation, as well as celebration and joy through acts of rediscovering family genealogies.
WASHINGTON POST - In the galleries: An artist’s journey through the pandemic - By Mark Jenkins
Hyperallergic - Two Artists’ Quest to Free Their Ancestors by Emily Wilson - November 20, 2022
as you summon other worlds, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA
December 3, 2022 – January 4, 2023
Assembly 2022: Time and Attention, Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington’s biennial exhibition program, Arlington, VA
October 1, 2022 – January 29, 2023
Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) Emerging Artists Program 2022-2023
Trina Michelle Robinson: Excavation: Past, Present and Future
October 5, 2022 – December 11, 2022*
The Emerging Artists Program is designed to amplify and support the practices of local, Bay Area artists both emerging and mid-career. The label “emerging” is not an indicator of age or a marker of educational status but an identifier that speaks to the impact a solo museum exhibition can have on an artist’s career at a pivotal moment, offering artists visibility and a platform that will ensure the longevity of their practice. These emerging artists are establishing themselves as important culture-makers to watch.
35th Annual Barclay Simpson MFA Award Exhibition
Wed, Feb 23 2022, 11AM - Fri, Apr 15 2022, 4PM
CCA Hubbell Street Galleries | 161 Hubbell Street, San FranciscO
Barclay Simpson (1921-2014) was a trustee and generous supporter of CCA for over 28 years. The Barclay Simpson Awards began in 1987 with a generous donation from Barclay and his wife, Sharon. Since its inception, the Barclay Simpson Award has been granted to over 100 students in CCA’s Graduate Program in Fine Arts, helping them finish their degree work and launch their careers.
Each year the award is juried by outside experts who assess the work of second year MFA students and select four winners. The exhibition of the student award winners, and its opening reception, are among the hallmark events of the spring semester.
Special thanks to this year’s jurors, Alison Gass, Krieger Family Director at ICA San Francisco, and Claudia Schmuckli, Curator in Charge of Contemporary Art and Programming at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Taking Place: Untold Stories of the City
November 19, 2021 through March 12, 2022
How do shifts in the land use of cities and neighborhoods impact populations, and in turn, how do the people that live or work in a place influence or control change? Taking Place: Untold Stories of the City unearths histories, legacies and points of erasure in the Civic Center, Bayview-Hunters Point and the Presidio. The exhibition features new work by Mansur Nurullah, the 2020-21 SFAC Artist in Residence at SF Planning, artist and storyteller Trina Michelle Robinson, and Hannah Waiters, an artist, researcher and current Collections Cataloging Fellow at the de Young.
Interstice
August 2021
My film Berea will be screened at Interstice presented by The Residency Project at Motor Los Angeles, Los Angeles California.
Oregon Heritage Virtual Summit
April 29-30, 2021
I will be a keynote speaker for this year’s conference where focus is on understanding needs, priorities, and opportunities within our communities. A video recording is available here. (Originally scheduled to take place in 2020 but was postponed due to Covid-19.)
Black Space Residency
I will be the Black Space Residency artist-in-resident for March 2021, located in the state of the art studio space at Minnesota Street Project.
Printed Matter Virtual Art Book Fair
Part One of my Great Migration Series will be included in the Printed Matter Virtual Book Fair with A Magic Mountain Press.
Since the first NY Art Book Fair in 2005, Printed Matter’s Art Book Fairs have been among the leading international gatherings for fostering the distribution, understanding, and celebration of artists’ books and art related publishing. In 2021, the NY Art Book Fair and LA Art Book Fair will be produced as a combined online event—Printed Matter’s Virtual Art Book Fair—safely bringing the artists’ book community together for a fun and experimental new Fair.
Printed Matter’s Art Book Fairs have hosted exhibitors from around the world featuring a wide variety of works—from zines and artists’ books to rare and out of print publications, and contemporary art editions. In this new iteration, the Fair will be more broadly accessible to visitors and exhibitors than ever before, and we are thrilled to serve and support artists’ book publishing without the challenge of international travel. As we embrace the possibilities of this time of social and political transformation, we feel that an online event of this kind can continue to provide an essential space rooted in connection, expression, and criticality. The Fair will feature a full schedule of the live programs that have made the event special in the past— discussions and workshops, interactive book launches, musical performances, and much more.
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The Legacy of Food Activism: A Storytelling Event
Food has always been political. African American ancestors paved the way for our modern-day food activism, from the grass-roots efforts of Georgia Gilmore selling food at the Montgomery bus boycotts to the Black Panthers laying out the blueprint for free breakfast programs. While our heroes did not have the agency to call themselves activists in the past, we honor and recognize their work today.
Join MOFAD for an evening of virtual storytelling and poetry as we discover powerful narratives in conversation with Therese Nelson of Black Culinary History, Chef Omar Tate of Honeysuckle, Paola Velez of Bakers Against Racism, The Common People Poetry Group, Korsha Wilson of A Hungry Society, and Trina Michelle Robinson of Muloma Heritage Center. Learn how their unique, personal stories of food became a tool for activism, as we trace a common thread from the past to the present.
Thursday, February 25, 2021
8:00 PM 9:30 PM
Online Zoom link will be emailed day of the event
PAST
November 10, 2020: I am honored to be the graduate winner of the 2020 Yozo Hamaguchi Printmaking Award. Now in its 25th year, the exhibition launch and artist talk event will be taking place at 12pm PT via Zoom: https://cca.zoom.us/j/7379599924
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On October 6, 2020 the official announcement of a deeply moving project I’m involved in called the Muloma Heritage Center took place. Muloma is a Mende word meaning, “We Are Together.” Muloma Heritage Center is working at the crossroads of culture, cuisine, sustainability, agriculture, and ecology. I am so excited to be involved in this special project very close to my heart.
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Featured storyteller: Moth special event Into the Deep: Stories of Hidden Treasures, a virtual fundraiser on August 12, 2020.
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Following appearances at The Moth Mainstage at New York’s Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theater and several other cities, my story about exploring my southern roots will air on The Moth Radio Hour on public radio beginning Tuesday, October 1 and on their podcast beginning Tuesday, October 7. I will be talking about the story behind the video essay The Call – the discovery and exploration of the lives of my enslaved ancestors in Kentucky. The episode also includes an interview between me and my director Meg Bowles.
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Performance: I was honored to be part of a group of performers included in a video and live performance by artist Izidora Leber LETHE for her solo exhibition Peristyle currently running at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco which ran Jul 25, 2019 through January 19, 2020.
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Interview: In 2019 I was interviewed by the amazing Alex Hollander for her podcast limbo.