ASH ROBINSON
INDIANAPOLIS 2025 - 2026
Ash Robinson, born in 1985, is an American multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Indianapolis. Trained as a furniture designer and maker, she earned her BFA from Herron School of Art & Design in 2010. While attending San Diego State University for graduate school, Robinson realized that functional objects could no longer solely be a vehicle for her artistic expression and began experimenting with a wide range of mediums and concepts. Known for her reflective portraits, her work is inspired by the resilience, beauty, and complexity of the Black community. With boldly vibrant textures, Robinson considers her multi-media approach as a representation of an eclectic Black society. Robinson has been featured in numerous exhibitions including Cause & Æffect: Art that Speaks Out, Indiana State Museum, The Simplicity of Being: Identity & Personhood in a Complex World, New Delhi, India, as well as the Butter Fine Art Fair 2 & 3, Indianapolis, IN. She also was selected and exhibited her work at ArtPrize 2024, in Grand Rapids. Among her top accomplishments are the Beckmann Emerging Artist Fellowship and the Creative Renewal Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis.
COMMUNITY PROJECT
Ash Robinson has been collaborating with the Damien Center, Indiana’s oldest HIV/AIDS service organization on Save Haven, a series of art-making workshops and conversations centered on the theme of home. As a sculptor, Ash’s work draws inspiration from her own journey toward homeownership, a goal that has become increasingly difficult to achieve in many metropolitan areas. Her sculpture works serve as refuges for Black narratives, exploring the concept of home not merely as property but as a source of empowerment, stability, and belonging.
Through this collaboration, Ash hopes to amplify the Damien Center’s housing assistance programs by highlighting personal stories from community members whose lives have been positively impacted by the Center’s holistic services. While much of the project will take place through workshops and community conversations, Ash envisions the creation of a large-scale artwork inspired by these shared stories, one that reflects the resilience, care, and creativity found within the Damien Center community.
COMMUNITY PARTNER
Damien Center is Indiana’s oldest and largest organization leading the effort to prevent the spread of HIV. The Center opened in 1987 and offers a one-stop-shop model of care that includes preventive, supportive, and medical services that empowers people in Central Indiana affected by HIV/AIDS to move forward each day with dignity so they may live abundant and productive lives. Damien Center believes passionately in the dignity and worth of every person who seeks their services and strives to be a safe and welcoming place so that no barriers separate people from the services they need to prolong and enhance their lives.