“I love the feeling that I get from Robin’s paintings. They are visual comfort food. Soothing and homey in their familiarity while surprisingly moving in the stories underneath.” Saundra Heath

Robin Grant is a self-taught artist who became interested in street photography after a 30-year career as a NYC school teacher. Learning to shoot film and associating with other photographers led Grant to begin taking portraits of friends and other subjects that she met on NYC’s Prince Street. As Grant’s interest in creating visual art grew, she wanted to paint and draw. She spent hours studying art books and visiting galleries and museums. Grant credits Amedeo Modigliani, Kerry James Marshall, Sam Gilliam, Alex Katz and Alice Neel as early influences when she began painting and drawing portraits .

“I am passionate about creating portraits. Every face tells a story through line and shape. Painting a portrait makes me realize that a face embodies a palette of many colors, if you look closely. I find that intriguing.” Robin Grant

This exhibition contains over 30 pieces from 3 of Grant’s different series. Together they seamlessly weave stories of Robin growing up in Brooklyn, through portraits of her family, neighborhood scenes and her love of jazz, expressed through paintings of Nikki Mendez, a female saxophonist and Mendez’s colleagues, often other female musicians.

Grant’s work is bright, loose and often fun.

Fellow artists, photographer, Jean Andre Antoine and painter, Patrick-Earl Barnes have been important mentors and friends.