Robin Adsit, Cal State San Bernardino lecturer of visual art, has her latest solo exhibition, “Fixed, Fluid, and Framed,” on display at The Little Gallery of San Bernardino until Wednesday, April 17. Her work looks at the human physique as archives, with a focus on body language as a signifier of gender, power, emotion and desire. Through exploring the dissonance between the body, representation and the mediated image, Adsit identifies the intersections of where the objective and subjective, truth and fiction, rational and emotive meet. “Sometimes it might come from a place that started with something personal, but I try to make it something a little more universal,” Adsit said when describing her art. “Most of my work is content driven, some more than others.” “Interpreting objects, materials, and space lends focus to the representation of the body as a site of subtle slippage, struggle, disruption and/or dislocation; an intended slippage between observation and illusion,” reads the Instagram post describing her latest exhibition. “The persons at view consist of mixed media on mixed material. Layered shapes, patterns, color and thin washes of paint over figures interrupt the course of looking or seeing the parts over the whole; searching the ways in which to expose or share small intimate parts of our lives in the public domain. In navigating the expressions of desire and loss we can dismantle assumptions of a fixed subjectivity through images that challenge the viewer to contend with that loss, disintegration, inconsistencies, and distortions of the body.” Adsit says her work also highlights the imperfections and unbalances in society. “It’s about being unbalanced in a world where things aren’t really that smooth right now, in particular, for women’s rights … equality,” she said. “As a teacher, more of my students are women in my classes – at the undergraduate level, it’s more women than men; at the graduate level, it starts to kind of even out – and after that, women are still represented less in gallery systems and museums, and they’re paid less.” When beginning her artistic career, Adsit says she was influenced by women coming out of the feminist movement – the women artists who were “breaking rules.” She says she still looks at those artists today. Through grants, Adsit’s practice has taken her to as far as Spain to study the works of Velazquez, El Greco and Zurbaran. She has also participated in multiple residencies, the most recent being in 2017 at The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. She teaches beginning and advanced 2-D design, and life drawing at CSUSB, and is an adjunct assistant professor at Los Angeles City College. Adsit received her bachelor’s from the San Francisco Art Institute, her master’s in painting and drawing from San Francisco State University, and her MFA with a concentration in painting and drawing from Ohio State University. About The Little GalleryThe Little Gallery was started by Cal State San Bernardino adjunct professor Andrew K. Thompson and local artist Eric Servin. Their mission is to spotlight curated, contemporary art from San Bernardino County and beyond. The Little Gallery’s exhibition program relies on donations. The Little Gallery is located at 459 W. 4th St. Suite #12 in San Bernardino. It is open by appointment only. Appointments can be made by contacting thelittlegallerysb@gmail.com. The gallery can also be reached at @the_little_gallery_sb on Instagram and Facebook. For more information or to make a donation, visit The Little Gallery website at TheLittleGallerySB.com.

“Reduced Visibility” by Robin Adsit.
“Reduced Visibility” by Robin Adsit.