Art Writer Robin Cembalest
has produced everything from investigative journalism to profiles, trend stories, hard news, reviews, and early listicles and blog posts. She’s published in the the Village Voice, New York Observer, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, El País, most of the major art magazines, design publications, and many other places.
Working at ARTnews, Robin covered the major cultural events and controversies of the 1990s and 2000s— government funding and the Mapplethorpe obscenity trial, the ecological art boom, the growth of the Guggenheim, censorship cases, multiculturalism, diversity, Native American art, the rise of social practice, and the transformation of the art museum, among other topics. She’s also written extensively on Spanish art and culture for publications in Spain and the U.S.
Following is a non-chronological sampling from Robin’s hundreds of publications.
Tradition, a Curse: Inventing Punk in a Small Spanish Town
Reporting on post-Franco cultural shifts in the Andalusian town Priego de Córdoba.
‘The Last of a Kind’
Painter Antoni Tàpies, descendant of Picasso and Miró, did not leave an heir apparent
Spanish Cities Where Sherry Rules
The Spanish cities of Jerez, Puerto de Santa María and Sanlucar de Barrameda make most of the world's sherry, but there is plenty to do in these small cities besides drink wine, and plenty to see as well
Spain’s African Enclave: Letter from Melilla
Robin visited Melilla, the Spanish city in the Maghreb, during the 1997 celebrations commemorating the 500th anniversary of Spanish rule. While some viewed the city as an outdated relic of colonialism, she reports, others viewed it as a multicultural harbinger of Europe’s future.