Robin Roi @ 440 Gallery

Coming Apart

March 28 - April 28, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 30, 2024, 4 - 6 p.m.
Artist Talk: Sunday, April 14, 4:40 p.m.

COVID protocols will be observed as appropriate.

440 Gallery is pleased to present Coming Apart, a solo exhibition of mixed media on paper by Robin Roi.

Roi’s collection, Coming Apart calls back to the biblical story of God creating human life. In the beginning, there was an androgynous being, male/female, “Whole and One”.

In the moment God split this androgynous being into male and female, this “coming apart” became the very site of the birth of opposition and duality, the great divide — male and female, black and white, right and wrong. Thus, it left us, without our even noticing, living inside this ancient story.

In Roi’s view, Coming Apart un-conceals the beginning of the world we currently live in. Behind a veil of beauty, Roi camouflages her message of turmoil and divide. It is one moment past the androgynous being split into two. In contrast to the biblical story, this composition reveals Adam as the one who tempts Eve with the dangerous fruit. This role-reversal taunts the view that sin is innately feminine. Making Adam the tempter tests the trustworthiness of the tale.

Roi writes, “This exhibition asks the viewer to engage with the story in a new way — to take what is so overtly familiar that it has become invisible and examine how it continues to influence and shape our world.”