Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson show heads to Newark
The Newark Museum of Art (NMOA) presents Aminah Robinson: Journeys Home, A Visual Memoir, on view from October 16, 2025, to March 1, 2026. The exhibition brings together some of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson’s (1940-2015) most profound artworks and writings produced from 1948 to 2012, drawn from the permanent collection of the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA). Presenting Robinson’s historical research, personal narratives, and folklore-based mixed media artwork from her seven-decade practice, Journeys Home is both a visual memoir of the artist’s life and a powerful portrayal of the African American experience.
Aminah Robinson: Journeys Home, A Visual Memoir celebrates Robinson’s life and art through four themes—Childhood Home, Ancestral Home, Spiritual Home, and Journeys Home—within which drawings, paintings, prints, sculptures, illustrated texts, journals, and mixed media textiles are showcased. Together, these thematic sections take visitors on an intimate journey through the artist’s abundant life and vibrant storytelling, including her beginnings, her family’s African ancestry, her travels, and her depiction of African American history and culture.
“Aminah Robinson was a singular storyteller whose art carries the weight of history and the intimacy of lived experience,” Catherine Evans, Interim Co-Director and CEO, The Newark Museum of Art, said. “Having known her during my years at the Columbus Museum of Art (Ohio), I’ve seen firsthand her dedication to building community and to honoring Black life. We are thrilled to introduce her exceptional artworks to Newark and beyond.”
In addition to being a visual artist, Aminah Robinson was a researcher, historian, poet, author, illustrator, composer, and teacher. Her artistic mission was, as she once stated, “to celebrate the everyday lives of Black people and their endurance through centuries of injustice.”
Journeys Home will offer visitors a chance to witness the fruits of this profound mission that Robinson tirelessly endeavored to bring to life. A prolific multi-media artist, Robinson’s artworks reflect vernacular African American culture and her enchanting, resourceful personality and unique lexicon, such as “hogmawg,” a mixture of mud, clay, sticks, leaves, and glue she made to create her sculptures, and “RagGonNon,” her textile works that “rag on and on.”
“Aminah Robinson’s work, which radiates with love and ancestral wisdom, is a gift to generations now and those to come,” said Henone Girma, Associate Curator, Arts of Global Africa, The Newark Museum of Art,and organizer of NMOA’s presentation. “With remarkable ingenuity and mastery across an extraordinary range of materials and forms, she illuminated and preserved the stories, struggles, and triumphs of Black people in her community and beyond. It is an immense privilege to play a role in this project’s effort to introduce her profound vision and legacy to new audiences.”
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum is offering a rich offering of programming, including a Community Day on November 15, 2025, an after-hours program for families, and a workshop with contemporary button artist Beau McCall, with dates to be announced later this year.
Journeys Home upholds NMOA’s long-standing dedication to showcasing diverse artists and artworks that prompt visitors to consider the social impact of art. The exhibition will be the latest among the Museum’s recent solo exhibitions featuring diverse voices, including Pakistani artist Risham Syed’s, Destiny Fractured (currently on view through March 7, 2027), Bony Ramirez: Cattleya, and acquisitions and long-term public installations, including Apollo Diptych by artist Sanford Biggers, and NOW by Shahzia Sikander.
Aminah Robinson: Journeys Home, A Visual Memoir is currently on a national tour organized by CMA, with support from the Art Bridges Foundation. NMOA will be the exclusive northeast venue for this 10-year posthumous exhibition, which launched at the Springfield Museum of Art earlier this year and will travel nationally through 2028.
About The Newark Museum of Art
We welcome everyone with inclusive experiences that spark curiosity and foster community.
Founded in 1909 and located in the heart of Newark, New Jersey, the Newark Museum of Art was founded on the radical belief among museums in 1909 that art is for everyone. MOA built its collections with art from Asia, Africa, and the Americas, areas that other museums ignored at the time. 115 years later, NMOA is the state’s largest fine art museum and has the 12th most extensive collection in the nation. It preserves and shares 300,000+ objects of artistic, scientific, and cultural importance. Visitor- and community-centered, NMOA responds to its diverse public’s evolving needs and interests by offering exhibitions, programming, a research library, paid internships, and local and global partnerships
