Art Writer Robin Cembalest

Throughout her career, Robin has covered the people, places, and trends shaping the art world. Following is a non-chronological sampling from Robin’s hundreds of publications.

Robin Cembalest 9/4/25 Robin Cembalest 9/4/25

Should Curating Be Crowdsourced?

In attempting to avoid controversies over content, a Smithsonian panel might be setting the stage for even more.

Robin Cembalest 9/3/25 Robin Cembalest 9/3/25

Where Rube Goldberg Meets Kafka

At the Havana Biennial, concepts like political correctness and radical chic got all shook up

Robin Cembalest 9/1/25 Robin Cembalest 9/1/25

From Kongo to Othello to Tango to Museum Shows

Artists and scholars are taking increasingly nuanced approaches to tracking the image--and influence--of Africans in Western art.

Robin Cembalest 8/31/25 Robin Cembalest 8/31/25

A Gallery of Venice Biennale Artists

Converging on Venice from Iraq, Iceland, Azerbaijan, and beyond, they came, they showed—and they posed for photos

Robin Cembalest 8/31/25 Robin Cembalest 8/31/25

Making the Global Local

Manuel Borja-Villel's rehang of the Reina Sofía highlights its holdings of Spanish modernist icons—along with the unknown, the unexpected, and the international.

Robin Cembalest 8/30/25 Robin Cembalest 8/30/25

Your Thievin’ Art? At Play in the Field of Fair Use

Your mug shot. Your profile picture. Your breakfast table. Is anything safe from appropriation artists?

Robin Cembalest 8/29/25 Robin Cembalest 8/29/25

Engravings for the E.T. in All of Us

Trevor Paglen’s small silicon disc on a space-bound satellite is a giant leap for public art--whether or not the aliens actually get it.

Robin Cembalest 8/9/25 Robin Cembalest 8/9/25

Must-See Museum Shows to Make You Think, or Cry

Elaine Reichek, Hugh Steers, and more.

Robin Cembalest 8/9/25 Robin Cembalest 8/9/25

Making Yale Zig Zag

Robert Storr brings Jac Leirner back to art school. A paper chase ensues.

Robin Cembalest 8/9/25 Robin Cembalest 8/9/25

Let It Bleed: The Frightening Scene on the Met’s Roof

A history of violence resonates in Imran Qureshi's massive rooftop painting at the Metropolitan Museum, and in other shows by Benny Andrews, Nancy Spero, and more.

Robin Cembalest 8/9/25 Robin Cembalest 8/9/25

Let My People Show: Welcome to ‘Jew York’

Jewish art geography, from Aleph and Arbus to Robert Zimmerman

Robin Cembalest 8/4/25 Robin Cembalest 8/4/25

Painting Auschwitz Blue

Maurizio Cattelan, Santiago Sierra, Yishai Judisman, and the challenge of contemporary art about the Holocaust.

Robin Cembalest 8/4/25 Robin Cembalest 8/4/25

From Breakdowns to Breakthroughs

Art Spiegelman on storytelling, modernism, wormholes, loopholes, and the boundaries that still separate high and low.

Robin Cembalest 8/3/25 Robin Cembalest 8/3/25

Chasing Unicorns in Art Across the Ages

A herd of the magical, elusive creatures alights in uptown Manhattan, while others emerge in galleries and artist's studios everywhere.

Robin Cembalest 8/3/25 Robin Cembalest 8/3/25

A Terrible Beauty?

New York's museums grapple with 9/11.

Robin Cembalest 8/3/25 Robin Cembalest 8/3/25

Taking Roman Vishniac Out of the Ghetto

With a trove of images that were unseen and unknown, the ICP creates a nuanced portrait of the photographer best known for documenting the vanished world of Eastern European Jewry.