(b. 1963)
Bridgette Robinson first demonstrated an artistic temperament at the age of eight when she took art classes at MollyOlga Neighborhood Art Classes in Buffalo (now known as the Locust Street Neighborhood Art Classes, Inc.). Stimulated by color, she developed a particular interest in pastels as her preferred medium. According to the Pastel Society of America, her works are considered pastel paintings, as the ground is covered completely with pastel.
In 1986, the Arts Council in Buffalo and Erie County presented a solo exhibition of her work. In 1994, El Museo Francisco Oller y Diego Rivera presented Bridgette Robinson: A Retrospective in the Mazur Gallery in Buffalo.
The Burchfield Art Center included Ms. Robinson’s work in the 1988 survey Honest to Goodness Art, that curator James Hartel organized to demonstrate:
a grass-roots tradition of picture making that transcends differences and binds people together in a common spirit and image of human experience. There are pictures that delight in the obvious themes of everyday people in society and in nature and celebrate their varied cultural backgrounds, ethnic origins, religions, philosophies and specific events, both tragic and wondrous.
In his introduction, Hartel described Bridgette Robinson as “an Afro-American who expresses the simple virtues of her life in the Fruitbelt neighborhood of Buffalo where she grew up.” She often appears in her pastel paintings, at work, at home, and in the studio.
Since 1972, Ms. Robinson’s work has been exhibited in the MollyOlga Annual Art Shows and Locust Street Neighborhood Art Classes, Inc. Annual Shows. Her work has also been shown in group exhibitions at El Museo Francisco Oller y Diego Rivera (1987), Bethune Gallery of the State University of New York at Buffalo (1987), Buffalo at Empire of America (1985), E. H. Butler Library at Buffalo State College (1986), Goldome Bank (1987), and Ikenga Gallery (1993).