John Robinson 'THUG', a solo exhibition at Woolbridge Art Gallery, Biella, Italy, March 26 - May 29

JOHN ROBINSON ‘THUG’

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Via Salita di Riva 3 - 13900 - Biella - Italy contact@woolbridgegallery.com +39 347 860 1965 2

JOHN ROBINSON ‘THUG’

A SOLO EXHIBITION AT WOOLBRIDGE ART GALLERY MARCH 26 - MAY 29, 2022

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Le opere di John Robinson si ispirano alla tradizione di antichi maestri del XVI e XVII Secolo, includendo artisti del calibro di Velazquez, Caravaggio e Goya, con particolare attenzione alla tecnica dell’autoritratto precedentemente adottata da artisti del calibro di Dürer e Rembrandt.

Le opere figurative di Robinson offrono una visione contemporanea della ricca tradizione ritrattistica. Per la maggior parte delle volte, la produzione di nuovi significanti visivi si definisce in accordo con il proprio tempo, riferito alla riproduzione meccanica, alle immagini in movimento, che alla digitalizzazione avvenuta nel XX Secolo.

La pittura di Robinson d’altra parte, appare problematica e laboriosa e offre un lungo percorso verso l’informazione, dove abilità e noia convivono con uguale equità nella ricerca artistica del pittore. Questa è una strana vocazione che fornisce uno stage per la 4

propria morte teorica in corrispondenza con la velocità dei nuovi movimenti e tendenze artistiche contemporanee.

Negli ultimi dieci anni Robinson ha sviluppato una propria versione del “dipinto” inteso come travestimento - autoritratto. Tra i punti chiave della pratica dell’artista britannico c’è la performance che viene registrata in studio.

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Queste azioni, raramente rese pubbliche, vengono però poi riportate nell’opera pittorica. Per Robinson, i suoi dipinti rivelano la preoccupazione personale, la presa di coscienza e il processo di liberazione, tramite Catarsi. Per lo spettatore l’esperienza appare sia elaboratamente grandiosa che goffamente rivelatrice. Parliamo del nostro tempo essendo costretti a esistere fuori dal tempo stesso.

La genesi della contemporaneità deriva in gran parte dale vicende degli anni ‘60, ma oltre a ciò c’è qualcos’altro che si attiva nei dipinti di Robinson, avvicinandoli ai meme (foto e video spiritosi) che girano sul web e che fanno letteralmente a pezzi i significanti di significato, al fine di intrattenere.

Racconta Robinson: “Il lavoro è in parte eguale storia dell’arte, in parte performance e in parte riporta la cultura dell’umiliazione”. È comunemente accettato che la funzione e lo scopo di un ritratto, sia dell’altro che di se stessi, 6

sia quello di rivelare aspetti del soggetto che sovente sfuggono. La nozione di “esposizione” in questi dipinti è particolarmente ambigua e psicologicamente complessa, incarnando una dualità che rappresenta sia la continuità che l’allontanamento dalla grande tradizione.

Questa dualità è ben evidenziata da Fernando Pessoa che una volta scrisse: “ Masquerades (le maschere) svelano la realtà delle anime.

Finché nessuno vede chi siamo, possiamo raccontare i dettagli più intimi della nostra vita. A volte immagino la scena di un uomo afflitto da una tragedia personale nata da un’estrema timidezza, che un giorno invece, mentre indossava una maschera diversa, in un luogo a me sconosciuto, raccontò tutta un’altra maschera: la più personale, la più segreta, con le più impensabili cose che si potrebbero rivelare sulla propria tragica e serena vita.

E siccome nessun dettaglio esteriore lo avrebbe tradito, avendo mascherato anche la sua voce, e 7

siccome non badava a chi l’avesse ascoltato, poteva godere dell’ampia sensazione di sapere che da qualche parte nel mondo c’era qualcuno che lo conosceva come nemmeno il suo migliore e più intimo amico.

Quando camminava per strada si chiedeva se questa persona, o quella, o quell’altra laggiù, non fosse la stessa a cui una volta, indossando una maschera, avesse raccontato la sua vita più privata. Questo farebbe nascere in lui un nuovo interesse per ciascuno, poiché ciascuno potrebbe essere il suo unico, sconosciuto confidente”.

Come affermó una volta Picasso, spesso ricitato; “l’arte è una bugia che ci fa realizzare la verità” - una maschera indossata fornisce la protezione in modo che la verità possa probabilmente essere svelata. Viviamo in un mondo devastato incentrato sulla propria persona con la tendenza a nascondere dove l’onnipresente immagine manipolata auto-rappresentata riempie le nuvole 8

e il web. Friedrich Nietzsche scriveva: “Il proprio Io è ben nascosto al proprio Io; di tutte le miniere di tesori, la propria è l’ultima ad essere dissotterrata”.

Goya scrisse una delle sue rappresentazioni più strazianti del terrore nella serie Disastri di Guerra, “Yo lo vi” (l’ho visto).

John Robinson vuole suggerire qualcosa di simile con le sue opere: mentre Goya lo vedeva, Robinson lo concretizza.

“Questi dipinti sono accaduti realmente”, racconta l’artista. Non c’è nulla di aggiunto alla narrazione nelle opere di Robinson che non abbia effettivamente avuto luogo. Sono anti-surreali. Per quanto di difficile comprensione, il costrutto è raccontato con trasparenza e la luminosa teatralità delle situazioni presentate maschera a malapena la più prosaica vulnerabilità di ogni dipinto realizzato “ ad hoc”.

La narrazione del contenuto di Robinson è 9

ambigua, allo stesso modo in cui appare la cultura popolare contemporanea quando costringe i suoi “visitatori” alla sospensione dell’incredulità.

La valuta in gioco ha conseguenze sul mondo reale, poiché ci siamo abituati a frasi come “fatti alternativi” e “verità personali”. Questo tipo di narrazione è inaffidabile proprio come la pittura stessa è intrinsecamente inaffidabile.

Il luogo in cui ci troviamo oggi ci porta a un legame sempre vicino con i nostri amici immaginari “avatar” portandoci a creare una distanza dal nostro vero Essere.

Ció ci spinge a dover negoziare tra due stadi: quello personale e quello virtuale. Questa sfida risulta sempre più difficile, ma è altrettanto necessaria per creare una riconnessione profonda.

I processi di comprensione di sé stessi sono complessi ed effimeri. Forse non c’è da meravigliarsi che sia alquanto impossibile avere una “genuina” connessione virtuale con il 10

prossimo. Tutto questo mentre continuiamo a cercare una negoziazione tra la nostra vera essenza in opposizione alla nostra realtà immaginaria.

Carl Jung scrisse che “l’incontro di due personalità è come il contatto di due sostanze chimiche: se c’è una reazione, entrambe si trasformano”.

Bjorn Stern marzo 2022 11

Smiley (Hermit) 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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Courbet (Modern Hermit) 2022, Oil on linen 150 cm H by 120 cm W (59” H by 47 1/4” W In.)

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The works of John Robinson share the tradition

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.

However Robinson’s figurative yet often absurd works offer a contemporary subversion of the rich tradition of portraiture. For the most part the production of new visual signifiers conclude 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 a costly path to information where skill and boredom negotiate equal measures from its maker, in this case John Robinson. It 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 he has developed his use of the painting as a disguise; self portrait as ‘other’.

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Robinson’s key practice involves performances which are recorded in the studio. These actions, which are rarely published, 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.

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 18

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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.

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, 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.

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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’.

As Picasso once stated, to be often re-quoted, ‘Art is a lie that makes us realise truth’ - a mask worn provides the protection so that the truth can then be told perhaps. We live in a selfie ravaged world of hide and seek, where the ubiquitous, manipulated, selfrepresented 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’.

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John Robinson suggests something similar with his works - while Goya saw it, Robinson made it.

‘These paintings happened’, he says.

There is nothing added to the narrative of Robinson’s paintings that has not actually taken place. They are anti-surreal. As unknowable as they may seem, the construct is produced candidly and the often resplendent theatricality of the presented situations barely mask the more prosaic ‘ad hoc’ vulnerability of each painting.

But the narration of Robinson’s content is also duplicitous, in the same way contemporary popular culture finds itself compelling its subscribers 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 proverbial ‘we’ leans further and further on to our fictional avatars, we also become estranged 22

from our real self and the negotiation between the two is becoming increasingly more difficult 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 to our fictional realities.

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’.

Bjorn Stern March 2022 23

Horror Movie 2 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 24

Horror Movie 5 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 25

Horror Movie 8 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 26

Horror Movie 4 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 27

Horror Movie 10 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 28

Horror Movie 1 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 29

Horror Movie 6 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 30

Horror Movie 7 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 31

Horror Movie 3 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 32

Horror Movie 9 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 33

Horror Movie 14 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 34

Horror Movie 11 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 35

Horror Movie 13 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 36

Horror Movie 12 2022, Oil on paper on canvas (maroufle) 70 cm H by 60 cm W (27 1/2” H by 23 2/3” W In.) 37

‘The work is equal parts art history, part performance and part humiliation culture’.

Thug 2022, Oil on linen 200 cm H by 120 cm W (78 3/4” H by 47 1/4” W In.) 38

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Backtracking 2021, Oil on canvas 46 cm H by 41 cm W (18 1/5” H by 16 1/5” W In.) 40

Herzog 2021, Oil on canvas 46 cm H by 41 cm W (18 1/5” H by 16 1/5” W In.) 41

You Can’t Keep Your Story Straight 2021, Oil on canvas 46 cm H by 41 cm W (18 1/5” H by 16 1/5” W In.) 42

Fountainhead 2021, Oil on canvas 46 cm H by 41 cm W (18 1/5” H by 16 1/5” W In.) 43

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Rimjob 2021, Oil on canvas 41 cm H by 46 cm W (16 1/5” H by 18 1/5” W In.)

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Bent (Hermit) 2022, Oil on linen 150 cm H by 120 cm W (59” H by 47 1/4” W In.)

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Blake (Hermit) 2022, Oil on linen 160 cm H by 120 cm W (63” H by 47 1/4” W In.)

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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 (* 1981, lives and works in Worcester, U.K.) Education: 2003 BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Falmouth College of Arts Falmouth UK 2008 Masters in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London UK Solo Shows (Selected): 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

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Group Shows (Selected): 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 ‘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

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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

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: 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

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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 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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Acknowledgements The artist would like to extend his gratitude to Jean le Guyader, Patrick Saletta, Bjorn Stern, Stjarna.art, Nathalie Melikian and the team at Woolbridge Gallery.

All images © John Robinson 2022 Photographs courtesy Maximilan de Dycker For more information about the artist www.johnrobinson.art John Robinson is managed by Stjarna.art, Brussels

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WOOLBRIDGE ART GALLERY VIA SALITA DI RIVA 3 IT-13900 BIELLA - ITALY CONTACT@WOOLBRIDGEGALLERY.COM +39 347 8601965

WOOLBRIDGE ART GALLERY

BIELLA

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