Coombs grew up in Michigan's majestic Upper Peninsula where he spent his childhood roaming the great outdoors. He started photographing his walkabouts in middle school and moved on to portraiture in high school. Coombs received a scholarship to Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids Michigan. During his third year in undergrad, Coombs sustained a spinal cord injury due to a gymnastics training accident. After a year of recovery, he returned to KCAD and received his BFA in photography in 2013. Coombs' photography explores the intersections of disability and sexuality. Themes of relationships, caregiving, fetish, and sex are depicted and explored throughout. Coombs graduated from the Yale School of Art with his MFA amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and is currently residing in coastal Alabama.

Education

Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT

Master of Fine Arts, 2020         

Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, MI

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Photography, 2013

Exhibitions

2024

  • BODY FREEDOM FOR EVERY(BODY) - https://www.bodyfreedomforeverybody.org

  • I'm Sorry, this Space Is Reserved - Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark

  • No Content Warning - ONE Archives at USC Libraries

  • Gorgeousness: A Summer Pride Show, Curated by Richard Renaldi - Benrubi Gallery NY

2023

2022

  • Pure Joy - 1969 Gallery curated by Chella Man - New York City

  • Fire Island Pines by Robert Andy Coombs – BOFFO Artist Residency

  • Variance: Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Disability – RISD Museum, Providence Rhode Island

2021 

  • Photo Vogue Festival - REFRAMING HISTORY, Base Milano, Milan Italy

  • Robert Andy Coombs: Notions of Care (solo show) Frost Art Museum FIU, Miami Florida. 

  • REFRACTION, Spazju Kreattiv, Malta

  • IT’S MUCH LOUDER THAN BEFORE, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles California

  • Yale MFA Photography Exhibition: what is the also?, Archive/Project Space, Pittsfield Massachusetts

  • Yale 2020 thesis show: Hindsight 2020, Yale School of Art Gallery

2020

  • A Sub-Tropical Affair, Miami Art Week, the Center for subtropical affairs, Miami Florida

  • Yale University School of Art 2020 Online Thesis Show (due to pandemic) https://mfaphoto.yaleschoolofart.org

2019

  • Touching History: Stonewall 50, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California

  • My Body Is the House That We Live In, Gibney Dance, New York, New York

  • Second Year MFA Show, Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut

2018

  • Run What You Brung, Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut

2017

  • Excuse Me, I Have Something to Say, Avenue for the Arts, Grand Rapids, Michigan

2015

  • LadyBoy, Solo Show at The Out Center, Benton Harbor, Michigan

  • Art of the Lived Experiment, 50 Monroe, Grand rapids, Michigan

2013

  • The Time We Cannot Meet, Detroit Print Exchange at 4731 Gallery, Detroit, Michigan

  • Hard Femme, Con Artist Crew, Grand Rapids, Michigan

  • ArtPrize, UICA, Grand Rapids, Michigan

2012

  • ArtPrize, Fountain Street Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Honors and Awards

  • Aperture Portfolio Prize Finalist 2022

  • BOFFO Fire Island Residency 2022

  • United States Artists Fellow 2022

  • Wynn Newhouse Award 2021

  • Richard Benson Prize, Yale school of Art 2020

  • Critical Practice Award, Yale school of Art 2019

  • Photographers Forum Finalist, Best of College 2013

  • Photography Studio Excellence Award, Kendall College of Art and Design 2013

  • Mac on Campus Featured Student 2012

  • Western Michigan Chapter: American Civil Liberty Union, Social Justice award 2012

  • ArtPrize: Top 25 Jury Selection in 2d Category 2012

  • Kendall College of Art and Design Scholarship 2006

Artist Lectures

  • UCLA 2024

  • University of Houston 2024

  • Otis College of Art and Design 2023

  • Yale University School of Art MFA photography program 2023

  • Carnegie Mellon University 2022

  • University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences - Occupational Therapy 2022

  • UCLA 2022

  • University of Miami 2022

  • Otis College of Art and Design 2021

  • Robert Andy Coombs: Notions of Care, Frost Art Museum 2021

  • University of Zürich 2021

  • University of Central Florida 2021

  • Pratt Institute 2021

  • Human Rights Watch 2021

  • Yale GALA 2021

  • Ferris State University 2021

  • University of North Carolina School of Medicine 2021

  • Pointe Park University Photography Department 2021

  • Kendall College of Art and Design 2020

  • Harvard University, Undergraduate Photography class by Elle Perez 2020

  • Yale University, Undergraduate Photography class by Theodore Partin 2019

  • DisArt Festival, Grand Rapids Michigan 2015

  • Grand Valley State University, Occupational Therapy, 2012 – 2018

  • Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, 2012 – 2018

  • Grand Valley State University, Meijer Honors College, 2012

Conference and Panel Presentations

  • Through the Lens of Disability and Chronic Illness – RISD Museum

  • DIS/ABILITY: ABLEISM, IDENTITY, AND THE ETHICS OF ABILITY – Florida International University 2022

  • Photo Vogue Festival - REFRAMING HISTORY • The disabled body: romance, intimacy, sex, and isolation 2021

  • REFRACTION Talks: Mental Health & Disability in the LGBTIQ+ Community, Spazju Kreattiv, Malta 2021

  • Beyond Magnum “Practices of Representation” 2021

  • LUX X CFAC presents Dwoskin, Disability And… sexuality, illness, intoxication: Intoxicated by my Illness (2001) in conversation with P. Staff and Robert Andy Coombs as part of the AHRC-funded project, The Legacies of Stephen Dwoskin. 2021

  • Touching History: Stonewall 50, Palm Springs Art Museum 2019

  • Grand Rapids Feminist Film Festival 2015

  • Bodies of work, University of Chicago 2013