Olivia Robinson is a multimedia artist whose work spans video, installation, research, and community engagement. Robinson’s diverse body of work, which ranges in scale from hand-built textile circuits to architectural-scale inflatable structures, investigates issues of justice, identity, community, and transformation. She has received awards and honors from the Rubys Award, National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Franklin Furnace Fund, the Harpo Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Sculpture Space, and the Center for Land Use Interpretation. Her work has been recognized in books, journals, and CD/DVD releases and has been presented at internationally recognized venues including the Baltimore Museum of Art, the WPA/Corcoran Museum, the Museo d'Arte Provincia di Nuoro in Sardegna, Italy, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, SIGGRAPH, ISEA, and Boston Cyberarts Festival.
Olivia received her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she majored in Fiber Art with a focus on inflatable sculpture, experimental costuming, and performance. She co-founded the performance troupe Little Big Bang which performed at the American Visionary Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Mermaid Parade, and the WPA/Corcoran Museum. She also worked in the Community Arts Partnerships office during its first four years. Robinson holds an MFA in Electronic Art from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she studied under legendary composer/performer Pauline Oliveros, for whom she currently serves as board member for the Deep Listening Institute.
Olivia has led lectures, conferences, workshops, and college-level courses at universities and colleges including Carnegie Melon University, York University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Savannah College of Art and Design, New York University, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Syracuse University, and the Maryland Institute College of Art. The innovative artworks resulting from her classes have been featured in museum exhibitions and acclaimed by the New York Times.
Olivia is a founding member of Luminous Intervention, a Baltimore-based activist artist group that uses light as a medium for bringing attention to important topics in Baltimore and beyond. Luminous Intervention was founded in 2011 and has produced dozens of projections in collaboration with multiple local and national grassroots organizations and activists.
Robinson lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
