A man with light skin, blue eyes, a beard, and short light brown hair. He has a scar above his right eyebrow and tattoos on his neck and chest. He is wearing a light-colored shirt.

Robert Andy Coombs

Robert Andy Coombs is a contemporary queer and disabled photographer whose work explores intimacy, desire, embodiment, and public space from the perspective of a power wheelchair user.

His work documents queer sexuality, intimacy, Pride culture, and public space through lived disability experience, positioning his practice within disability aesthetics and queer visual culture. His photographs are exhibited internationally and are referenced by curators, writers, and academics in discussions of contemporary queer photography and disability art.

Working across portraiture, Polaroid, and street photography, Coombs uses the camera as a tool of agency, care, and visibility. His images confront how disabled queer bodies are erased from dominant narratives around beauty, desire, autonomy, and public life. Through intimate self-portraiture and street-based documentary practice, he asserts disabled queer presence within spaces that have historically excluded it.

Context & Significance

Coombs’s work has become a reference point in contemporary disability aesthetics and queer visual culture. His photographs are used in academic writing, museum exhibitions, and public discourse addressing disability, sexuality, bodily autonomy, and queer public space. His practice is recognized for reshaping how disabled and queer bodies are represented in contemporary photography.

Naked man lying face down on a bed with a blue sheet, with medical tapes on his wrists and ankles, in a dark room.

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Education

  • MFA, Photography — Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT (2020)

  • BFA, Photography — Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, MI (2013)

Solo Exhibitions

  • 2024 – Robert Andy Coombs: No Content Warning, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles, CA (June 14 – November 9)

  • 2022 – Robert Andy Coombs: Fire Island Pines, BOFFO Artist Residency Exhibition, Fire Island Pines, NY (June 25)

  • 2021 – Robert Andy Coombs: Notions of Care, Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU, Miami, FL (August 14 – November 7)

  • 2015 – The Secret Society of Disabled People, DisArt Festival, Grand Rapids, MI

Group Exhibitions

  • 2025 – DON’T LOOK NOW: A Defense of Free Expression, Art at a Time Like This, New York, NY (October 10 – 25)

  • 2025 – Queer Lens: A History of Photography, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (June 17 – September 28)

  • 2025 – Degenerate Art in the Age of DOGE, Durden & Ray, Los Angeles, CA (March 22)

  • 2024 – Gorgeousness: A Summer Pride Show, HeyBenrubi Gallery, New York, NY

  • 2024 – I’m Sorry, This Space Is Reserved, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark

  • 2024 – BODY FREEDOM FOR EVERY(BODY), Traveling Exhibition

  • 2023 – Disrupt and Resist, Mason Exhibitions, Arlington, VA

  • 2023 – Beholding Relations, Unit London (Online)

  • 2022 – PURE JOY: 14 Disabled Visual and Performance Artists, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY (June 30 – August 13)

  • 2022 – Variance: Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Disability, RISD Museum, Providence, RI (February 1 – October 9)

  • 2022 – Pride Photo Foundation Outdoor Exhibition — CripFag, Amsterdam / Traveling

  • 2021 – Reframing History / 35 Chapters, Photo Vogue Festival (BASE Milano & Online), Milan, Italy (November 18 – 21)

  • 2021 – Refraction, Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta, Malta (September 10 – October 24)

  • 2021 – It’s Much Louder Than Before, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA (August 14 – September 18)

  • 2021 – Hindsight 2020, Yale School of Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

  • 2019–2020 – Touching History: Stonewall 50, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA (October 12, 2019 – March 17, 2020)

  • 2016 – ELEVATE Fashion Show: Hybrid Structures, DisArt & SiTE:LAB, Grand Rapids, MI

  • 2015 – DisArt Festival, Grand Rapids, MI

  • 2012 – ArtPrize 2012 — Disabilities and Sexuality, Fountain Street Church, Grand Rapids, MI (2-D Juried Award Finalist)

Residencies & Commissions

  • NYC Tourism Pride Diaries Commission, New York, NY (2023)

  • BOFFO Fire Island Residency, Fire Island Pines, NY (2022)

  • AARP — National campaign commission (2019)

  • Gayletter Magazine — Editorial commissions (Reno Gold, 2021; Fantasia Royale Gaga, 2022)

  • DisArt Festival — Multi-year commissions including fashion shows, festival documentation (2015–2018)

Publications & Press

  • Momus — Erin O’Leary, “For Pleasure and Pictures: Robert Andy Coombs, His Critics, and the Language of Ableism” (2025). Link

  • Getty Publications — Queer Lens: A History of Photography (exhibition catalog, 2025)

  • CARLA (Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles) — “Robert Andy Coombs at ONE Archives at the USC Libraries,” by Philip Anderson (Issue 38, 2024)

  • LAist — “Robert Andy Coombs: No Content Warning” (2024)

  • LAist — “Best Things To Do This Week in LA & SoCal” (includes your ONE show, June 2024)

  • ONE Archives at the USC Libraries — “Robert Andy Coombs: No Content Warning” (curatorial text, 2024)

  • ONE Archives — “Opening Reception: Robert Andy Coombs” (program page, 2024)

  • Campus Reform — “USC features erotic LGBT exhibit by ‘queer and disabled photographer’” (news write-up, 2024)

  • NYC Tourism — “Pride Diary: Robert Andy Coombs” (feature by Adam Eli, 2023)

  • MeCreates — “Celebrating Pride: Photography from the LGBTQ+ Community” (2023 spotlight including your work)

  • Miami New Times — “CripFag: Robert Andy Coombs Photographs the Intersection of Disability, Queerness, and Sex” (2022)

  • RISD Museum, Manual Issue 17: “Double Take: Robert Andy Coombs” (2022)

  • 1969 Gallery — “Pure Joy” press release (2022)

  • Vogue / Photo Vogue Festival — “Reframing History: The Disabled Body” (2021)

  • Vogue / Photo Vogue — “Reframing History • Photo Vogue Festival 2021” (2021)

  • Cultured Magazine — “Photographer Robert Andy Coombs Captures the Lust of Life” (2021)

  • ArtDaily — “Frost Art Museum FIU opens the first solo museum exhibition of photographer Robert Andy Coombs” (2021)

  • World Red Eye — “Frost Art Museum FIU Exhibition Celebration with Artists Pepe Mar & Robert Andy Coombs” (2021)

  • Pride Source / Between The Lines — “Making Care Sexy: Michigan Native Documents Intersection of Sexuality and Disability” (2021)

  • Talk Art (podcast) — “Robert Andy Coombs” (Season 8, Ep. 10; interview, 2021)

  • Frost Art Museum — “A Conversation with Robert Andy Coombs” (program page, 2021)

  • Frost Art Museum — “Exhibition Celebration” program page (2021)

  • Frost Art Museum — “Robert Andy Coombs: Notions of Care” (curatorial exhibition page, 2021)

  • University of Zurich — “Künstlergespräch mit Robert Andy Coombs” (artist talk listing, 2021)

  • Vulture / New York Magazine — Jerry Saltz essay “Pleasure, Helplessness, Fear, and Taboo” (2020)

  • Palm Springs Art Museum — “Touching History: Stonewall 50” (exhibition page listing, 2019–2020)

  • Popular Publicity — “Palm Springs Art Museum ‘Touching History: Stonewall 50’… features Robert Andy Coombs” (2019 press release)

  • NBC Palm Springs — “Palm Springs Art Museum Helps Kick Off Pride Weekend” (news item referencing Touching History, 2019)

  • The Rapidian — “Hard Femme brings new dimension to gender issues” (2018 review/exhibition coverage)

  • The Rapidian — “SiTE:LAB collaborates with DisArt on ArtPrize entry ‘Hybrid Structures’” (2016)

  • Associated Press / Washington Times — “Grand Rapids festival spotlights artists with disabilities” (2015)

  • The Rapidian — “Photographer focuses on empowered disability presence during DisArt Festival” (2015)

  • Revisions of Grandeur — “Grand Edits Update: The Fabulous Robert Andy Coombs” (2015)

  • Revisions of Grandeur — “Grand Edits with Bob Coombs: Revising Life as a Quadriplegic” (2015)

  • The Rapidian — “Hard Femme art exhibit to examine gender issues” (2013)

  • Hyperallergic — “Slimming Down the Short Lists: A Look at 10 ArtPrize Finalists” (2012)

  • Big Rapids News — “Kendall makes long-term commitment to ArtPrize” (2012)

  • Samantha Macy blog — “Robert Coombs” (short interview, 2012)

Lectures, Artist Talks & Public Programs

  • 2025 — University of Pennsylvania — Guest Lecture

  • 2024 — Yale School of Art — Visiting Artist Lecture (Belonging at Yale Series)

  • 2024 — UCLA — Guest Artist Lecture

  • 2024 — ONE Archives, Los Angeles — Opening Talk for No Content Warning (in conversation with Dr. Cyle Metzger)

  • 2023 — Yale School of Art — Visiting Artist Lecture

  • 2023 — Otis College of Art and Design — Artist Talk

  • 2022 — UCLA — Guest Artist Lecture

  • 2022 — University of Miami — Public Lecture

  • 2022 — BOFFO Fire Island Residency — “Monday Talks: Robert Andy Coombs”

  • 2022 — RISD Museum — “Six Photographers on Care” Roundtable

  • 2021 — Otis College of Art and Design — Artist Talk

  • 2021 — University of Zurich — Künstlergespräch / Artist Talk

  • 2021 — Frost Art Museum FIU — Notions of Care Exhibition Conversations (Oct 9 & 27)

  • 2021 — Photo Vogue Festival, Milan — Panel: “The Disabled Body—Romance, Intimacy, Sex, and Isolation”

  • 2020 — Yale School of Art — Visiting Artist Lecture

  • 2020 — Harvard University — Artist Talk

  • 2019 — Yale School of Art — Visiting Artist Lecture

  • 2015 — DisArt Festival, Grand Rapids — Gallery Talk: The Secret Society of Disabled People

Teaching & Academic Appointments

  • Lecturer, Photography — University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL (2021–2024)

  • Lecturer, Photography — Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT (2020)

Collections

  • RISD Museum, Providence, RI

  • ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles, CA

  • Museum of Disability History at The Viscardi Center

  • Tom of Finland Foundation