Shana Robbins is a painter, performance, and multimedia artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. She has exhibited and performed internationally in a variety of galleries, alternative spaces, and natural locations. Many of Robbins’ performances occur in remote rural areas with no human audience. This year, her work has been featured in Studio Visit Magazine, OFF THE STRIP at the Las Vegas Contemporary Arts Center, and THE POLITICS OF SHOES at Mobius in Boston.

Creating drawings/paintings as visual maps and references for handmade costumes, performance objects, and ritualistic actions, Robbins is engaged in an ongoing exploration and dissemination of her ecofeminist character called Monstrous Feminine. Various iterations of Monstrous Feminine, such as Tree Ghost, “haunt” places in order to reclaim space and destabilize static notions of the female body and the natural realm.

Selected Exhibitions:
2009 
  The Politics of Shoes, Mobius, Boston
  Off the Strip, Las Vegas Contemporary Arts Center
  Studio Visit, Volume V, Open Studios Press
  State of the Nation V Festival, New Orleans, Louisiana
2008
 A-B(o)MB, Presented by Artoconecto, Art Basel (of) Miami Beach pre-Basel  
   Showcase at Bakehouse Arts Complex, Miami
  Mergers and Acquisitions, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
  LeFlash, for Nuit Blanche , Castleberry Hill Art District, Atlanta, GA
  Mirror For the 21st Century, BECA Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, International
   curator Helen Pheby of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK
 2007-2008
   This is Me. Be Careful. Solo exhibition of performance drawings, paintings, collages,   
    and artifacts, Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta
 2007
  Talent Show, The Atlanta Biennial, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
  Viva La Frida, Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta
  Dreams Bright and Dark, StudioSwan, Serenbe, Georgia
 2006
  Dark Whimsy, Timothy Tew Gallery, Atlanta
  Drawing Voices, Ernest G Welch School of Art and Design Gallery at Georgia State     
  University, Atlanta
  Myth, Dream, Self, and Story, Temple Gallery, Atlanta
 2005
  March Winds and April Showers, Saved Gallery of Art and Craft, Brooklyn, NY
  Haute Grafix, No Space Gallery, Seattle, Washington
  Women’s Caucus for Art National Juried Exhibition:  Gender in Motion, 3Ten
   Haustudio, Atlanta
  Little Things Mean a Lot, The Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta
  Refusing to Dance Backwards, Spruill Gallery, Atlanta
 2004
  Made at ACA, Juror: Trevor Smith from the New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY,
  Atlanta College of Art Gallery
  All is Not Lost, Solo exhibition, Gallery 100, Woodruff Arts
  Center, Atlanta
  By Myself, The Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta
  I Dare You, Solo exhibition, Garage Projects Gallery, Atlanta
 2001
  Cream, Space 1180, Atlanta
 2000
  Simple Pleasures, 290 Martin Luther King Space, Atlanta
 1999
  The Fire Show, City Hall East Gallery, Atlanta
 1998
  The Blue Dress Show, Ballroom studios, Atlanta
  Investigation, Initiation, Exploration, Celebration, Penetration: A Journey into
  Lifestyle, Eroticism, and Imagery,Old Lake Claire Baptist Church Space, Atlanta

Performance:
2009
  Monstrous Feminine in Mexico, Remote performance in jungle near Akumal, Mexico
  Axis Mundi Performance Video, State of the Nation V Festival, New Orleans
  Axis Mundi, Solo Performance at Jokursarlon glacier lagoon, Iceland
  Tree Ghost in Iceland, Solo Performance in Black Desert and at Vatnajokull Glacier,
   Iceland
  Monstrous Feminine at the Blue Lagoon,  Solo Performance at the Blue Lagoon,
  Iceland
  Studio 401: Translating Media, collaborative multimedia production occurring
   simultaneously at Georgia State University and the University of Georgia
2008
  Tree Ghost,Grantmakers in the Arts Conference, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
   Hell’s Belles, multimedia collaborative performance at Masquerade, Atlanta, Georgia
2007
  Outmigration, multimedia collaborative performance at Monkey Town, Brooklyn, New
  York
  Artichoke, Solo performance for The Atlanta Biennial, Atlanta Contemporary Art
   Center
  This is Me. Be Careful. Solo performance installation at the Stables Bldg, Eyedrum
   Gallery, Atlanta
 2006
  Ear Trumpet, Solo performance installation for ARTperforms series, Eyedrum Gallery,  
  Atlanta
  Rainbow Machine, summer series of performance installations, Georgia State  
  University Gallery
  Body Double, Solo performance and exhibition of paintings, No Space Gallery, Seattle,
  Washington
  Solo Performance within Pam Longobardi’s rooftop installation Sky is Fallen, Sandler 
  Hudson Gallery, Atlanta
 2005
  Krystle, Performance installation with Jody Fausett in collaboration with Craig
   Dongoski and the M.U.T.E.D, Limelight Gallery, Atlanta
 1999
  Vanessa Beecroft still performance, Chelsea Piers, New York

Education:
  2008 Performance workshop with Rachel Rosenthal: Doing by Doing, Los Angeles
  2007 Master of Fine Arts, (MFA), Georgia State University
  2007 Butoh workshop with Ko Murobushi, Movement Research, New York
  2007 Performa 2007 Biennial, Performance Studies International Conference, New York
  2005 Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta

Awards:
2009 Atlanta Contemporary Art Center Grant --Warhol Grant for upcoming 2010 performance, Supernatural Conductor
2008
   Idea Capital Grant (funding for Axis Mundi in Iceland)
   Scholarship for Rachel Rosenthal workshop, Doing by Doing, Los Angeles
2007 Joseph Perrin Award for artistic merit
2006 Winnie G. Chandler Scholarship for artistic development
2005 Winnie G. Chandler Scholarship for artistic development
2004 Hambidge Center Fellow
1995 Merit Scholarship, Atlanta College of Art

Selected Bibliography:
 The New York Sun, “Sensory Overload” June 28, 2007
 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Creativity Rooted in Surroundings” December 30,  2007
 Creative Loafing, “Nature Versus Nurture” December 20, 2007
 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Diverse Biennial an Awkward Mix” June 24, 2007
 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “World of Good” December 30, 2006
 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “A Gently Biting Wit,” Oct. 22, 2006
 Atlanta magazine, "Portrait of the Artists" April 2005 (photo feature)
 Art Papers  magazine, page 69, July/August 2005 (reproduction)
 Creative Loafing, “Get it, Give it!” November 24, 2005. Page 47
 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “A Look Within Reveals Truths About Us All” August  29, 2004
 Creative Loafing, “Women Behaving Boldly” August 19,2004
 Jezebel Magazine, “Laid Bare on Canvas…” September 2004
 Creative Loafing, “Whipped Cream” March 28, 2001
 New York Times Magazine, Vanessa Beecroft performance photo, November 14, 1999
 The Scene, “Private Collections” February 21, 1998
 Creative Loafing, “Praying for Sheetrock” November 22,1997

 Collections:
High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia 
Mandarin Hotel, Miami, Florida

Like Matthew Barney, Robbins is an artist dealing with nature/culture, eerie blends of music and performance and a partly invented mythology. If Barney has often taken masculinity and the male sex organs as his focus, Robbins has a comparable interest in linking nature and the feminine. Her costume, featuring an enormous satin hair bow (like those sad stick-ons plunked on girl-baby heads to signify "female") and lace, speaks to conventional, antiquated views of femininity. But her ornamentation of bark and Spanish moss and a face kept hidden from view give the impression of some mythic, eternal woman who haunts the primordial forest.

-Felicia Feaster
 

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