Noel Robbins Brings Sophisticated Art to Austin from America's Creative Cradle
Chicago is where all the great art in America originates. The east and west coasts play central roles in the critical and commercial advancement of art, but the creative center of America, its wellspring of original ideas and forms, is truly in the middle of the country. Having studied under artists such as Jim Nutt, Susanna Coffey and Amy Sillman at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Noel is proud to bring the energy and sophistication of this artistic pedigree to his beloved hometown of Austin, Texas.
Noel was born in Austin on December 22, 1968. He was reared by loving, hard working people who attended church regularly and league bowled on Saturday nights. Noel grew up a middle child with three siblings who he is still very close to. His parents instilled in him the philosophy that if a person does what she or he loves, then eventually success will come. So, once bitten, Noel chose to follow where the art bug would lead him.
Noel Robbins did not attend art classes until college in 1987. During his early education he focused on music, performing in concert, marching and jazz bands as a percussionist. On the side Noel drew pictures to entertain his friends at school, and having an interest in comic books attended art classes at Austin Community College with David Elliott, Minnie Miles and Katherine Brimberry who opened his eyes to the potential art provides for living an interesting and fun life.
At the fine arts school of the University of Texas at Austin Noel studied under Peter Saul, Bill Lundberg, Michael Mogavero, Dan Southerland, Sarah Canright, Bradley Peterson, Richard Jordan, Bill Hoey and Bob Levers. Classmates Will Klemm, Mark Trujillo and Chris Ware shared in Noel's educational experience in classes on painting with pastels, video art, printmaking and oil painting. The undergraduate art department at UT prepared its students for advanced study at the graduate level, which Noel achieved after graduation from UT in 1992 and a couple years of independent formation. Noel showed his paintings at Wally Workman Gallery between undergraduate and graduate school programs.
In 1995 Noel moved to Chicago to attend the graduate program for painting and drawing at the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Noel was chosen for this program, along with roughly two dozen other painters, out of over 800 applicants. During his time there Noel studied with Jim Nutt, Susanna Coffey, Amy Sillman, Donald Baechler, Carol Dunham, Ted Halkin, Philip Hanson, Jim Lutes, Ellen Campbell, Tony Phillips, Michelle Grabner, John Rozelle, Jerry Saltz, Dennis Adrian and Carol Becker, His particular focus in graduate school involved the nature of perception in painting and drawing as form relates to symbol through mediated cultural contexts. Because he had access on a daily basis to the world-class collection of paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago, Noel fell in love with the Realist and Impressionist painters of the latter half of the nineteenth century, as well as the work of Henri Matisse. The direction of Noel's work shifted from gestural abstraction based on automatic processes to perceptual realism from direct observation. At this time Noel also started his career in education as an instructor to undergraduates at SAIC.
After receiving his masters degree in painting and drawing from SAIC in 1997 Noel taught at Moraine Valley Community College, Morton College, Hinsdale Center for the Arts and Suburban Fine Arts Center in the Chicago area. He also showed his work at the Contemporary Arts Workshop, Nippon Steel and flirted with full representation at the Gwenda Jay Gallery in the River North gallery district in Chicago. In 1998 Noel moved back to Austin and started working as a professor at Austin Community College and an instructor at the School of the Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria. In 2000 Noel Robbins Studio opened its doors to adult students for continuing education in painting and drawing, and has continued to serve in this regard ever since.
Noel shows periodically at the Pastoral Center for the Diocese of Austin and at selected group exhibits at various art centers. His work has been selected twice for New American Paintings, a periodical that showcases contemporary artists from around the country, and written about in Circa CA: the Texas Journal of Contemporary Art. In 2007 Noel's paintings were awarded first place by famed Texas painter Melissa Miller in a competition for professional artists living in Houston, San Antonio and Austin at the Live Oak Art Center in Columbus, Texas.
Besides painting and teaching Noel enjoys amateur astronomy, building and flying remote controlled model airplanes, listening to music and playing along with the drums.
