Michael Sylvan Robinson
Artist Statement (Sylvan they/he)
My contemporary fiber art intersects fashion, sculpture, street art and queer activism through innovative use of textile collage and text-based art techniques. I begin with textiles selected for elaborate patterns, then reassembled into textile collages overworked with labor-intensive machine and hand-stitching, beadwork. I use decorative embellishment as both an invocation and provocation, reveling in a queer maximalism through a vivid color palette and deeply textured assemblage of materials. Originally a costume designer and performance artist, my practice includes wearable art and two-dimensional works, sculptural pieces and installation in which the question of scale is heightened by an intricate surface detail that draws the audience/viewer inwards from a larger conceptual structure. The sculptural garments and wearable art pieces are created as interventions of healing and activism amidst the challenging times in which we are living right now. Each garment is layered with imagery that is Queer, and of the wild, but also inspired by the urban settings of my home landscape; hand-stenciled poetic text fragments printed on the clothes name intentions, offer reminders of the fragility of our world, and provoke a call to healing, to action, to remembrance. Inspired by visits to Pompeii and Rome, my recent sculpture and 2D figurative works reexamine gender and art histories while considering the role of the artist navigating the tensions of societies under duress.
Biography
An internationally-exhibited genderqueer fiber artist, activist, and leader in arts education, Michael Sylvan Robinson earned an M.F.A in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College (2008) and a B.A. from Bennington College (1989) with an emphasis in dance and drama. With a background in costume design and as a performance artist, their contemporary fiber art has been shown in galleries and museum exhibitions including Rome Art Week, SPRING / BREAK Art Show, the National Queer Arts Festival in San Francisco, and the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts. Sylvan’s fashion art was photographed for Vogue Germany, commissioned and worn at the Met Gala in 2021 by theater producer and fashion enthusiast, Jordan Roth; their Met Gala collaboration was featured in an interview for Vogue and Vogue France. Sylvan was interviewed on fashion art and activism for Dressed: The History of Fashion Podcast (Episode 239: April, 2022). Identity Is… Jordan Roth’s Met Gala 2021 garment was exhibited at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC (April - June, 2024); Roth was photographed wearing all his Met Gala outfits, including Sylvan’s design, by master photographer Paolo Roversi for Shadowplay magazine. (April, 2025)
My contemporary fiber art intersects fashion, sculpture, street art and queer activism through innovative use of textile collage and text-based art techniques. I begin with textiles selected for elaborate patterns, then reassembled into textile collages overworked with labor-intensive machine and hand-stitching, beadwork. I use decorative embellishment as both an invocation and provocation, reveling in a queer maximalism through a vivid color palette and deeply textured assemblage of materials. Originally a costume designer and performance artist, my practice includes wearable art and two-dimensional works, sculptural pieces and installation in which the question of scale is heightened by an intricate surface detail that draws the audience/viewer inwards from a larger conceptual structure. The sculptural garments and wearable art pieces are created as interventions of healing and activism amidst the challenging times in which we are living right now. Each garment is layered with imagery that is Queer, and of the wild, but also inspired by the urban settings of my home landscape; hand-stenciled poetic text fragments printed on the clothes name intentions, offer reminders of the fragility of our world, and provoke a call to healing, to action, to remembrance. Inspired by visits to Pompeii and Rome, my recent sculpture and 2D figurative works reexamine gender and art histories while considering the role of the artist navigating the tensions of societies under duress.
Biography
An internationally-exhibited genderqueer fiber artist, activist, and leader in arts education, Michael Sylvan Robinson earned an M.F.A in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College (2008) and a B.A. from Bennington College (1989) with an emphasis in dance and drama. With a background in costume design and as a performance artist, their contemporary fiber art has been shown in galleries and museum exhibitions including Rome Art Week, SPRING / BREAK Art Show, the National Queer Arts Festival in San Francisco, and the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts. Sylvan’s fashion art was photographed for Vogue Germany, commissioned and worn at the Met Gala in 2021 by theater producer and fashion enthusiast, Jordan Roth; their Met Gala collaboration was featured in an interview for Vogue and Vogue France. Sylvan was interviewed on fashion art and activism for Dressed: The History of Fashion Podcast (Episode 239: April, 2022). Identity Is… Jordan Roth’s Met Gala 2021 garment was exhibited at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC (April - June, 2024); Roth was photographed wearing all his Met Gala outfits, including Sylvan’s design, by master photographer Paolo Roversi for Shadowplay magazine. (April, 2025)
