Robin Assner-Alvey Verified listing

Starting during the pandemic when I had a newborn and a toddler, I felt an irresistible need to photograph myself. I use my own body in a frank and honest manner to reflect on maternal ambivalence and the toll that motherhood can have on a person. At the end of long days, when I was both physically and mentally exhausted and had nothing else to give, I stood in front of the camera to document what was left of myself. I explore this through the disjointed way that the photographs of the body are assembled. In the final images, my body appears dismembered, not in proper proportion, and has an underwater feel as if the person in the image is drowning and hanging on by a thread.

In this recent work, I use an image transfer technique where I print photographs of my body onto transparencies. I then use hand sanitizer to transfer fragments of the images into a composed work that is situated across several large pieces of paper. In a sense, I’m trying to put myself back together again, but finding out that the pieces just don’t fit like they used to. The resulting image is an amalgamation of pieces of my body that exposes the daily discomforts that I’ve gained by being a mother. This examination of what it means to be a mother and the process of managing all the baggage that comes with it is evident in the varied spontaneous markings on the body and its surroundings that are revealed during the transfer process. I lean into the experimental aspect of this process and revel in not knowing exactly what it is going to look like until I do it, which is like how I experience motherhood.

Selected Exhibitions:

• Solo Exhibitions
  • The Body Residual, William & Florence Schmidt Art Center, Belleville, IL. Jan. 26-Feb 18, 2026
  • Reassembled, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, 2022
  • Embodied, Bruce Gallery at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, PA, 2019
• Group Exhibitions
  • Motherhood as Muse, Concord Center for Visual Art, Concord, MA Oct 23-Dec 21, 2025
  • Visages/Faces, Art-Icon, Arles, Frances, July 7-July 15, 2025
  • Summer Small Works 2025, National Association of Women Artists. INC., online exhibition, July 1-25th 2025; NAWA Third Place Award
  • the FUSE: the 2025 Barrett Faculty Exhibition, Kooyumjian Gallery, Webster University, St Louis, MO
  • Self Adjacent, Ridderhof Martin Gallery, University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA, April, 2025
  • Museum of Mother Art Auction, OXH Gallery, Tampa Bay, Florida, March2025,
  • 46th Annual Paper in Particular, Sidney Larson Gallery, Columbia College, Columbia, MO, March 2025
  • Self Adjacent, Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University, Athens, OH Fall 2024
  • Self Adjacent, Massey Klein Gallery, New York City, May 2024
  • New Realities, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Gallery, March 2024, Juror: Eric Lutz
  • The Bill Barrett Photo Faculty Exhibition, Kooyumjian Gallery, Webster University,  Saint Louis, MO
  • Self Adjacent, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Richmond, VA, Nov. 2023
  • The Bill Barrett Photo Faculty Exhibition, Kooyumjian Gallery, Webster University, Saint Louis, MO, 2023
  • 14th Annual Nude: Exploring the Uncovered Human Form, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, 2022
  • Perceive You, Shoebox Projects online exhibition, Juror: Kristine Schomaker, June, 2022
  • Our Reflection, The Huts Magazine Virtual Exhibition, Juror: Gita Joshi, June 2022
  • The Human Body, New York Center for Photographic Art, Virtual Exhibition, 2022 Juror: Darren Ching