Education
2000: Bachelor of Fine Arts, Otago School of Fine Arts (Painting Major, Printmaking Minor)
1996: Diploma in Art and Craft, Hungry Creek School of Art and Craft
1990: Foundation in Fine Art, Nelson Polytechnic
Artist Residencies
2018:nonesuch residency parsborro nova scotia canada
elerton gallery residency mt eden auckland
2013: William Hodges Fellowship, Southland Dunmoochin Foundation, Melbourne Australia
2012: Earthskin Art Residency, Muriwai, West Auckland
2009: Takt Kunstprojektraum Art Residency, East Berlin, Germany
2008: Tylee Cottage Residency, Whanganui, New Zealand International Studio and Curatorial Programme, New York, USA
2007: McCahon Art Residency, Titirangi, New Zealand
International Exhibitions
2019 :contempo annual publication inclusion -dallas texas USA
2017: Nonesuch Art of Paper award, Parrsboro/Montreal, Nova Scotia, Canada
2012: Light and Space Gallery, Manila, Philippines ‘Anti war anti orgasm’.
2009: Takt Kunstprojektraum studio, group show, Berlin
New York International Outsider Art Fair, New York, USA, January 9th-11th
Fountain Art Fair, New York, USA (New Zealand Art Agent Stall)
2008: I.S.C.P studio, group show, New York, USA
2006: ***bluetenweiss anonymous drawing project, Berlin, Germany (group
show) December 2006 ongoing contributions including Art basil 2009
Camden Gallery, London, United Kingdom (group show)
2003: Newcontemporaries Gallery, Sydney, Australia, Set Fire to Self—Drown(solo show)
2002: Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, Unutterable LoudObviousness (solo show)
Solo Regional Gallery Exhibitions
2018:Te manawa gallery (palmerston north public gallery) "doors- hyper objects of the cthulucene"
2017: Ashburton Public Art Gallery, Ashburton, Strange Attractor
2016: Millennium Art Gallery, Blenheim, Strange Attractor
2014: Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Invercargill, Paintings from the Beginning of the World
2012: Otago Art School Gallery, Dunedin, RAINBOW SERPENT-PSYCHIC SKINS mural installation
Aigantighe Art Museum, Timaru, Age of Transformation
2011: Glue Gallery, Dunedin, Heaven and Earth (gold heart ritual womb) installation and performance
2010: The Suter Art Gallery–Te Aratoi o Whakatu, Nelson, Witness selected survey
2009: Waikato Contemporary Art Award finalist 2009
Tauranga Public Gallery, Surface Tension
Sarjeant Gallery–Te Whare O Rehua, Whanganui, The Light
07-08: Lopdell House Gallery, Waitakere City, Ghost Guest Host: Loved Fuckt Killd Eatn
2007: Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Maker Centre of Contemporary Art, Mair Gallery, Christchurch, Giants Saints Monsters
2006: Ashburton Art Gallery, God and Death Left Bank Gallery, Greymouth, Rise
2005: Te Manawa Gallery, Palmerston North, Rise Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore, Rise
2003: Left Bank Gallery, Greymouth, Rugged Individual
2000: Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch, large works
1999: Left Bank Gallery, Greymouth, Vortex Boy—Living with Ghosts
Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch, works on paper
Selected Solo Dealer Gallery Exhibitions
2018 :Elerton gallery mt Eden auckland "alienated blues himalayan minitures" drawing show
quiet dog gallery nelson "subduction" works on paper
2017: PG Gallery, Christchurch, ROCK ACTION
Mint Gallery, Dunedin Strata with Mary McFarlane
2016: The Diversion Gallery, Picton, Undertow
Milbank Gallery, Wanganui, paper work
Zimmermanns Gallery, Palmerston North, Continuum
2015: PG GAllery, Christchurch, Anthropocene and Asylum (with six sonnets by
David Eggleton)
2014: Wallace Gallery, Morrisonville, Process Skins
Mint Gallery, Dunedin, Exorcise
The Diversion Gallery, Picton, Process Skins
Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Invercargill, Paintings from the end of
the world
Seed Gallery, Newmarket, Auckland, Selected works on paper
2013: Sanderson Gallery, Herne Bay, Auckland, Astral Weeks
Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore, Rainbow Serpent (Psychic skins)
2012: PaperGraphica, Christchurch, Resurrection
2011: Paul Nache, Gisborne, Deep See = No Drill Paper works
2010: Paul Nache, Gisborne, Instinct and Spirit
Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington, other-cide
2009: PaperGraphica, Christchurch, Recent drawings from Nepal and Berlin
Bath Street Gallery, Auckland, hapu contraction
Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington, The Light
2008: PaperGraphica, Christchurch, New York: Works on Paper
2007: Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington, Qi Gong Miniatures
PaperGraphica, Christchurch, Drawings: Works on Paper
Bath Street Gallery, Auckland, Rise
Lyttleton Port Gallery, Christchurch
2006: Milford Gallery, Dunedin, Ancient
2005: Milford Gallery, Dunedin, Start Up
Bath Street Gallery, Auckland, Giants Saints Monsters
2004: Temple Gallery, Dunedin, Rise
Tatton Gallery, Nelson, One Eyed Night
Arthouse Gallery, Christchurch, Catalyst
2003: Bath Street Gallery, Auckland, New Works
Temple Gallery, Dunedin, Set Fire to Self—Drown
Arthouse Gallery, Christchurch, Fault line Graduate
2002: Number Six, Lyttleton, Christchurch, Small Works
2002: Arthouse Gallery, Christchurch, Like It Matters!
2001: Arthouse Gallery, Christchurch, Vulnerable: Ego Commodity
Satellite Gallery and Higher Trust Arts Advocacy Group, Dunedin
2000: Walrus Gallery, Wellington
1999: Moray Gallery, Dunedin, Delirious
Touring Group Exhibitions
2010: Real Art Roadshow (2008-2010 inclusive)
2008:
2007: Wallace Art Awards touring exhibition: Aotea Centre, Auckland; New
Dowse Gallery, Lower Hutt, Wellington
2006: National Portrait Award touring exhibition, Shed 11, Wellington
2003: Wallace Art Awards touring exhibition: Aotea Centre, Auckland; New
Dowse Gallery, Wellington.
NCC Art Awards, Second Thoughts touring exhibition.
2000: Wallace Art Awards touring exhibition: Aotea Centre, Auckland; New
Dowse Gallery, Lower Hutt, Wellington.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019:parkin drawing prize finalist
2017: Parkin Drawing Prize (Merit Award)
2016: PG Gallery, Christchurch
2014: The Diversion Gallery, Picton
2012: Design Room Gallery, Nelson,
2011: Auckland Art Fair, Mark Hutchins Gallery,
2010: Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington, Southern Light (two man show with Jeffrey Harris
2006: Milford Gallery, Dunedin, Object Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington, with Richard Lewer and Scott Kennedy
Cleveland Living Arts Centre, Dunedin, Large Art
2005: SoCA Gallery, Christchurch, Dorian Gray Invitational 64zero3 Gallery, Christchurch,
Between Warhead and Warhorse with Scott Flanagan
2002: Temple Gallery, Dunedin, with works by Colin McCahon and Ralph Hotere
2000: Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin, with ceramicist Jim Cooper
1999: SoCA Gallery, Christchurch, Miniatures
1999: Robert McDougal Art Annex, Christchurch, Gruesome
Selected Collections
Nova Arts Trust, London, United Kingdom
New Contemporaries, Sydney, Australia
Wallace Arts Trust, New Zealand
Hocken Collection, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Christchurch Art Gallery–Te Puna O Waiwhetu Collection, Christchurch New Zealand
Christchurch District Health Board Collection, New Zealand
Palmerston North Public Gallery–Te Manawa, New Zealand
Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore, New Zealand
Sarjeant Gallery Collection, Wanganui, New Zealand
Testimonials
Justin Paton, Curator of Contemporary Art, Dunedin Public Art Gallery
‘... provoking, imploring, confessing ... he delivers a grungy retort to the clean-lined look of much recent art inspired by the virtual space of the computer screen ... Should we feel daunted by this chaos...or marvel at the vitality and moments of unexpected beauty to be found within it?’
Marian Maguire, Artist & Gallerist, PG Gallery, April 2017
'.....we come to the work from our own standpoint.....investigate them as an archaeologist might.....for clues of earlier epochs.....pore over them in the mode of an anthropologist-sifting through accumulated detritus to speculate on human civilisation. It's is a testament of James Robinson's ability as an artist that these works project visual surety in the abstract idiom.....'
Warwick Brown, Art Writer, New Zealand House & Garden, February 2017
'.....His art flows like the tide, picking up debris, expunging old marks, meandering, retreating, advancing again......Robinson is a force of nature and, like nature, his art is capable of sublimity and terror, of tranquillity and turbulence....'
Cilla McQueen, Poet, 2014
'.......Robinson's vocabulary of textural accident reflects the intense engagement of the artist with the perennial questions of how to live, paint, be. Whether his works are read as abstract metaphysical forms or as elemental mark-making, as chance arrangements or as sophisticated explorations of technique, the subtle rhythms of his elements produce an overall impression of natural elegance.....'
Chris Knox, in Look This Way: New Zealand Writers on New Zealand Artists
‘... a great big flatulent belch of fresh air amongst all the tight-sphinctered, deodorised boys and girls of the accepted national art world..... off-kilter and threatening but always sumptuously, gloriously beautiful.’
John McDonald, art writer for the Sydney Morning Herald
‘...a hyper-literate, passionate imagination ... draws, paints and writes with an intensity that makes one think of Van Gogh, or perhaps Antonin Artaud ... a viral outbreak of signs and symbols, a splattering of cosmic graffiti, built up layer upon layer ... visionary landscapes, reminiscent of the teeming vistas of Bosch or Breugel.’
David Eggleton, New Zealand Listener, July 5th 2003
‘beautiful, harsh and weirdly heroic ... Scorched, soaked and scavenged, Robinson’s paintings are a testimony to modern life as a chapter of accidents, where menace mingles with grief, and aggression with abjection.’
T. J. McNamara, New Zealand Herald, November 19th 2003
‘The impressive achievement of these big canvases puts Robinson in the forefront of New Zealand artists ... powerful terrains ... great force ... the intensely personal expression of dark, turbulent emotion ... he has the potential to be one of our most gripping painters.’
Dr. Jennifer “Ginger” Knowlton, editor of Divide: Creative Responses to Contemporary Social Questions, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
‘... subtle, poetic, meditative investigations of the nature of being within the contemporary world........Response to Robinson’s work, here in the States, has been a rare mixture of awe and warmth.’
Bridie Lonie, writer and Head of School of Art, Otago Polytechnic
‘Painting’s inherent orderliness is both problem and salvation: in this sort of work, the field is opened up, disorder created and order regained. ... a delightful drawer.’
Roger Boyce, Art New Zealand, Summer 2005 (117)
‘It is a visually stunning and accomplished journeyman work ... potentially formidable gifts ...Robinson’s commitment to practice and ferocious level of production is admirable ...’
Dan Chappell, Art News New Zealand, Spring 2005
‘... a new talent ... the embodiment of the driven artist ... The wide sweep and energetic intensity of his recent work means he defies categorisation. ... Critics have mentioned names like Schnabel, Kiefer and Basquiat—but ...it’s clear Robinson’s art is very much his own.’
Mark Amery, Dominion Post, June 30th 2006
‘... Robinson’s abstract works can create a bodily response, the impression that an emotional vein has been located and opened within the compressed matter of all things'.
Robyn Peers, The Christchurch Press, October 17th 2007
‘... enormously satisfying ... Basquiat, Kiefer, de Lautour, Peter Robinson; many artists are suggested as influences ... but James Robinson is quite clearly his own artist and .....has continued to develop his individual style.’
Margaret Duncan, The Christchurch Press, May 2004
‘... striking in its brutal physicality ...’
Peter Entwistle, Otago Daily Times, 2003
‘... a new and vital force in the tradition of Colin McCahon, James K. Baxter and Tony Fomison ....James Robinson's [work] is authentic. It shocks because it really hurts...’
Helen Watson White, Sunday Star Times, May 19th 2002
‘I was transfixed ... by the extraordinarily positive force of its negative energy ... even the most abstract [work] is alive.’
Warren Feeney, The Christchurch Press, February 1997
‘... slovenly refreshing ... too loud, hazardous, and personal to ignore ... a reminder of why artists take up their brushes in the first place...’
