JOHN ROBINSON 1
Painting a performance – that has been previously enacted privately in the artist’s studio or precariously in more public settings - is what Robinson has been focused on in his practice. In his paintings, he studies the human psyche through its’ rituals and ceremonies and even its less appealing self-congratulatory manifestations. He often portrays himself behind a mask to gain access to the most obscure parts of human pathology, where embarrassment, empathy, cruelty and humiliation - but also the sublime - reside. As stated by the curator Domenico de Chirico: “...for Robinson, painting is a disguise. The main aim of his practice is to use the images of his self-portraits as a way to become invulnerable to the inexorability of time, which he imprints on the surfaces of his paintings with magnificent acuity. Through this highly personal practice, in an attempt to transcend himself, he is constantly forced to confront the ghosts of his past: a performativ self-transcendence that produces dark characters, protagonists of an absurdly comic yet psychologically revealing theatre. 2
His works, usually made with a very precise chromatic palette of cold colours, show the artist wearing masks and other devices, during occult seances and rituals, both magical and cathartic, which never disregard a shared sense of collective empathy, where he himself mimes feelings and states of mind, tirelessly wading through the deepest notions of human sensitivity...”. The works of John Robinson share traditions of the old masters of the 17th and 18th centuries including artists such as Velazquez, Caravaggio and Goya with a focus on earlier self portraiture adopted by the likes of Dürer and Rembrandt. John Robinson’s figurative works offer a contemporary subversion of the rich tradition of painted portraiture. For the most part the production of new visual signifiers happen in agreement within their own time, be that from mechanical reproduction, moving images or their digital states in the 21st century. Painting on the other hand appears problematic and laborious and it offers sometimes a costly path to information where skill and boredom 3
share space in equal measures. Painting is a strange vocation that keeps providing the stage for its’ own theoretical death at the precipice of each new contemporaneous art movement or trend. In the past decade Robinson has developed his use of the painting as a disguise; self portrait as ‘other’. Robinson’s key practice involves performances which are recorded in the studio or in public actions. These actions are then rendered in paint. For Robinson, his paintings embrace personal concern, disclosure and catharsis. For the viewer the experience appears both elaborately grandiose and awkwardly revealing. They speak of our time by being forced to exist out of time. The genesis of their contemporaneity stem in large parts from the happenings of the 1960’s, but something else is also activated in the paintings of Robinson, which places them closer to online viral memes that literally tear signifiers of meaning apart, in order to reuse them for the purpose of entertainment. 4
Says Robinson: ‘The work is equal parts art history, part performance and part humiliation culture’. It is widely accepted that the function and aim of a portrait, be it of other or of self, is to reveal or expose often elusive aspects of the subject. The notion of ‘exposure’ in these paintings, is notably ambiguous and psychologically complex, embodying a duality that represents both continuity and departure from the great tradition of painting. This duality is well highlighted by Fernando Pessoa who once wrote ‘Masquerades disclose the reality of souls. As long as no one sees who we are, we can tell the most intimate details of our life. I sometimes muse over this sketch of a story about a man afflicted by one of those personal tragedies born of extreme shyness who one day, while wearing a mask, I don’t know where, told another mask all the most personal, most secret, most unthinkable things that could be told about his tragic and serene life. And since no outward detail would give him away, he having disguised even his voice, and since he didn’t take careful note of whoever had listened to him, 5
he could enjoy the ample sensation of knowing that somewhere in the world there was someone who knew him as not even his closest and finest friend did. When he walked down the street he would ask himself if this person, or that one, or that person over there might not be the one to whom he’d once, wearing a mask, told his most private life. Thus would be born in him a new interest in each person, since each person might be his only, unknown confidant’. We live in a selfie ravaged world of hide and seek, where the ubiquitous, manipulated, self-represented image fills the cloud and the internet Friedrich Nietzsche wrote ‘One’s own self is well hidden from one’s own self; of all mines of treasure, one’s own is the last to be dug up’. Goya famously inscribed one of his most harrowing depictions of terror in the Disasters of War series, ‘Yo lo vi’ or ‘I saw this’. John Robinson suggests something similar with his works and while Goya witnessed it, Robinson went ahead and actually made it. 6
‘These paintings happened’, he says. There is nothing added to the narrative of Robinson’s paintings that has not actually taken place. They are in fact anti-surreal. Unknowably outrageous as they may seem, the construct is produced candidly and the often resplendent theatricality of the performed situations barely mask the more prosaic ‘ad hoc’ vulnerability of each painting. The narration of Robinson’s content is also duplicitous, in the same way contemporary popular culture finds itself compelling its participants to suspension of disbelief. The currency in play has real world consequences, as we have become accustomed to phrases such as ‘alternative facts’ and ‘personal truths’. This kind of narration is unreliable much in the same way as painting itself in inherently unreliable. As the collective ‘us’ lean further and further towards our fictional avatars and realities, we also become estranged from our authentic selves and the negotiation between the two is becoming increasingly more difficult to comprehend 7
but also urgent. The processes of understanding oneself is a complex and ephemeral one. Perhaps it is no wonder that genuine connection with the ‘other’ is made virtually impossible as we continue to negotiate our real selves in opposition with our fictional realities. The practice of John Robinson can be taken at face value with the generosity and vunerability offered by his interior worlds. His manner of politely convincing his audiences is driven by letting them in on the joke, to see the back-stage of his idea of the sublime and to learn some truths about what it means to be reliably unreliable. A lover and a cheat, a bad friend, the uneasy feeling of cringe denting the veneer of respectability and accountability both on- and offline. John Robinson’s work is whatever the audience wants it to be, until it is no longer - and the joke is in fact, returned to us. Carl Jung wrote that ‘The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed’. Texts compiled by Stjarna.art, Bjorn Stern, Domenico de Chirico 8
John Robinson performing Hermit with Flowers, ca. 2022
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I am not myself, ...for you
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John Robinson performing Tarot Card Reading, ca. 2011
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John Robinson, Rimjob, 2022, Oil on linen, 40 cm H by 50 cm W, (15 3/4” H x 19 3/4” W in)
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John Robinson, Rimjob, 2022, Oil on linen, 40 cm H by 50 cm W, (15 3/4” H x 19 3/4” W in) Detail
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John Robinson performing Unstable Monuments, ca. 2022
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John Robinson, Flammarion, 2022, Oil on linen, 195 cm H by 130 cm W, (76 3/4” H x 51 1/8” W in)
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John Robinson, Pirate, 2022, Oil on linen, 40 cm H by 50 cm W, (15 3/4” H x 19 3/4” W in)
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John Robinson, Pirate, 2022, Oil on linen, 40 cm H by 50 cm W, (15 3/4” H x 19 3/4” W in) Detail
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John Robinson, Buddha Beard, 2022, Oil on linen, 45 cm H by 37,5 cm W, (17 3/4” H x 14 3/4” W in)
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John Robinson, Survivor, 2020, Oil on linen, 120 cm H by 120 cm W, (47 1/4” H x 47 1/4” W in) Detail
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John Robinson, I’ve said I’m sorry by now at least once to just about everyone, 2018, Oil on linen, 40 cm H by 50 cm W, (15 3/4” H x 19 3/4” W in)
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“The work is equal parts art history, part performance and part humiliation culture..” John Robinson 22
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The Hermits
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I want to wear heaven on my face...
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John Robinson, Basquiat (Hermit), 2022, Oil on linen, 160 cm H by 120 cm W, (63” H by 47 1/4” W In.)
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John Robinson, Hermit 7, 2020, Oil on linen, 150 cm H by 120 cm W, (59” H by 47 1/4” W In.)
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John Robinson, Hermit 9, 2020, Oil on linen, 150 cm H by 120 cm W, (59” H by 47 1/4” W In.)
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John Robinson, Hermit 12, 2020, Oil on linen, 180 cm H by 120 cm W, (70 3/4” H by 47 1/4” W In.)
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John Robinson, Modern Hermit Smiley , 2022, Oil on linen, 180 cm H by 120 cm W, (70 3/4” H by 47 1/4” W In.)
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John Robinson, Big Hermit with Saint Paul , 2020, Oil on linen, 200 cm H by 160 cm W, (78 3/4” H by 63” W In.)
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John Robinson, Hermit 11, 2020, Oil on linen, 150 cm H by 120 cm W, (59” H by 47 1/4” W In.)
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John Robinson, Hermit with Flower, 2020, Oil on linen, 150 cm H by 120 cm W, (59” H by 47 1/4” W In.)
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Marouflages
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John Robinson, StNickface, 2022, Oil on paper on canvas, 60 cm H by 41 cm W, (23 3/4” H x 15 3/4” W in)
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John Robinson, The Milky Way, 2022, Oil on paper on canvas, 60 cm H by 41 cm W, (23 3/4” H x 15 3/4” W in)
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John Robinson, With the Best Will in the World..., 2023, Oil on paper on canvas, 100 cm H by 60 cm W (39 1/3” H by 23 2/3” W In.)
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John Robinson, Horror Movie 4, 2022, Oil on paper on canvas, 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.)
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John Robinson, Jenny Face, 2023, Oil on paper on canvas, 100 cm H by 60 cm W (39 1/3” H by 23 2/3” W In.)
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John Robinson, The Drawing Room (Gervais), 2022, Oil on paper on canvas, 60 cm H by 40 cm W, (23 3/4” H x 15 3/4” W in)
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John Robinson, We all end up at the fishing hole, 2022, Oil on paper on canvas, 60 cm H by 41 cm W, (23 3/4” H x 15 3/4” W in)
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John Robinson, Susanna and the Elders, 2023, Oil on paper on canvas, 100 cm H by 60 cm W (39 1/3” H by 23 2/3” W In.)
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Selected works
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John Robinson Albrecht’s Birthday 1514 performance ca. 2010
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JohnRobinson, Robinson, Ante9,Garden, Garden , 202, Oil on canvas, 200 400Hcm W 1/4” (78 3/4” H by 157 1/2” W In.) Detail John Hermit 2020, Oil on linen, 150 cm H by 120cm cmHW,by(59” by 47 W In.)
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John Robinson, Hermit 9, 2020, Oil on linen, 150 cm H by 120 cm W, (59” H by 47 1/4” W In.)
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John Robinson, The King of the North, 2022, Oil on canvas, 146 cm H by 114 cm W, (57 1/2” H x 44 7/8” W in)
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John Robinson, Seance, 2023, Oil on linen, 146 cm H by 114 cm W, (57 1/2” H x 44 7/8” W in)
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John Robinson, Mosquito, 2023, Oil on linen, 300 cm H by 200 cm W, (118 1/8” H x 74 3/4” W in)
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John Robinson, Orienteer, 2022, Oil on linen, 195 cm H by 130 cm W, (76 3/4” H x 51 1/8” W in)
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John Robinson, Big Psycho Hobbermans, 2021, Oil on linen, 180 cm H by 150 cm W, (70 7/8” H x 59” W in)
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John Robinson, Thug, 2022, Oil on linen, 200 cm H by 120 cm W, (78 3/4” H by 47 1/4” W In.) Detail
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John Robinson (* 1981, lives and works in Worcester, U.K.) Education: 2008 Masters in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London UK 2003 BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Falmouth College of Arts Falmouth UK Solo Shows (Selected): 2023
“Verso”, Zuecca Project Space, Turin, curated by Domenico de Chirico
2022
‘Thug’, Woolbridge Art Gallery, Biella, Italy
2021
‘Cnut’, Anima Mundi Gallery, St Ives, UK
2019
‘Jenny Agutter’, Division of Labour Gallery, Worcester, UK ‘I Love You I’m Sorry’, Bruton Art factory, Bruton UK
2018
‘Before Us Stands Yesterday’, Bruton Art Factory, Bruton UK
2014
‘Reboot’, Division of Labour Gallery, Worcester UK
2013
‘Time will Tell’, Meadow Arts commission at Croft Castle Hereford (in association with the Arts council Great Britain) Hereford, UK
2012
‘Reset Manifesto’, Division of Labour Gallery, Worcester, UK
2011
‘Love’s Labours Lost’, Division of Labour Gallery, Worcester, UK ‘Albrecht’s Birthday 1514’, My Names Lolita Art, Madrid, Spain ‘Albrecht’s Birthday 1513’, The Art Gallery University of the Arts, London, UK (Performance)
2009
‘I thought these things might be clues’, My Names Lolita Art, Madrid, Spain
2008
‘Paintings’, Galeria Xanon, Bilbao, Spain
2007
Galeria Rita Castellote Madrid, Spain
2005
‘John Robinson: Cuadros’, Museo del Ferrocarril, Madrid, Spain
Group Shows (Selected): 2023
“Weltgeist”, Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna
2022
‘Unstable Monuments’, curated by Jesse Leroy-Smith & Matthew Benington, The Courts, Bristol
2022
‘Thresholds (The Unnamed)’, Anima Mundi Gallery, St Ives, UK
2021
Wadström Tönnheim Gallery- Drawing Room Art fair Madrid, Spain 54
‘Castles of Sand’, Anima Mundi Gallery, St Ives, UK 2020
‘Dreamsongs: From Medicine to Demons to Artificial Intelligence’, Curated by Bjorn Stern, Colnaghi, London, UK Division of Labour- Drawing Room Art Fair Madrid, Spain
2019
Division of Labour- Artissima Art Fair Turin, Italy Simmons and Simmons- New Acquisitions London, UK The Chapel Gallery- Manchester contemporary art fair Manchester, UK Pitt Projects- Just Mad Art Fair Lisbon, Portugal ‘Interiors’, Division of Labour, Salford Manchester, UK ‘P is for Portrait’, Division of Labour, Worcester, UK ‘Velazquez Variations’, Colchester Institute of Art, Colchester UK Pitt Projects- Just Mad. Madrid, Spain Division of Labour- Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam Netherlands
2018
Edge Projects- Manchester Contemporary, Manchester UK
2017
‘Soup Kitchen of Love’, Bruton Art Factory, Bruton,UK
2016
Bruton Art Factory- ‘Wild Wild West’ Bruton,UK ‘234 Puntos’, My Name’s Lolita Art, Madrid, Spain
2015
‘Cryopreservation: Need Flowers Tomorrow?’, Syson Gallery Nottingham, UK
2014
‘Homage to January’, Division of Labour, Worcester, UK Division of Labour Gallery and Star Gallery Beijing- Art 14 Olympia, London,UK ‘John and Sally again’, Star Gallery, Beijing, China
2012
My Names Lolita Art - Arte Lisboa Lisbon, Portugal
2011
Division of Labour- Art Brussels, Belgium Division of Labour Gallery-Vilnius Art, Vilnius Lithuania.
2010
‘Albrecht’s Birthday’, Gallery 252, London, UK (Curated by John Robinson) My Names Lolita Art- EMAT Torrente Valencia, Spain
2009
My Names Lolita Art-Stand OFF’ Madrid, Spain 55
2008
‘Future Map 2008’, The David Robert’s Foundation, London, UK Focus-Abengoa Painting Prize, Seville, Spain ‘La búsqueda de El Dorado’, Amelia Moreno Foundation at ‘El Espacio del Arte El Dorado’, V En cuentro de Artistas, Toledo, Spain ‘Miniaturas’ Galeria Xanon Bilboa, Spain. ‘Selected works by DeArte’, Cofares Foundation, Madrid, Spain
2003
Falmouth College of Arts- Degree Show, Falmouth, UK
2002
Royal College of Art- Hunting Art Prize, London, UK Beside the Wave Gallery, Falmouth, UK
Residencies: 2023
Zuecca Projects, Venice, Italy
2022
Stjarna.art residency, Brussels, Belgium
2013
Meadow Arts Croft Castle Hereford in association with the Arts Council of great Britain.
2004
Richard Ford Award for Painting, Royal Academy, London, selected participant study of paintings in the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain
Awards: 2016
Hauser and Wirth Prize, Hauser and Wirth Somerset UK. First Prize
2008
Premio de Pintura Focus-Abengoa, Seville, Spain, Winner
2007
Alfa Romeo Award Art, ‘Best of show,’ Madrid, Spain, nominee
2007
South Square Trust Scholarship for MA study at Byam Shaw school of Art, Central Saint Martins, London
2005
Richard Ford Award for Painting, Royal Academy, London, First Place
1999
Peter Spicer Award for Excellence in Creative Arts, First Place
Public and Private collections (Selected): University of the Arts London permanent collection, London, UK Arts Council Collection, UK Nicolas & Maxinne Leslau collection, London, UK Focus-Abengoa Foundation, Seville, Spain 56
Coldwell Banker, Madrid, Spain Falmouth College of Arts Library, Falmouth UK Museo del Ferrocarril, Madrid, Spain Wellcome Collection London UK British Council Collection UK Chris Martin Collection, UK Damien Hirst collection, UK Sammlung Oberhof, Germany Bruin-Heijn Collection, Portugal Hereford School of Art, Hereford, UK
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Managed by Stjarna.art
www.johnrobinson.art 58