JOHN
ROBINSON

NEWS

VERSO

03/11/2023 - 26/11/2023

VERSO is the new exhibition by John Robinson, curated by Domenico de Chirico and organized by Zuecca Projects, opening in Turin on 3 November 2023.

On view, a rich selection of Robinson’s “self-portrait, in disguise”, including a new series of paintings resulting from his art residency and “Seance” performance hosted in Venice at Zuecca Projects (February 2023).

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.

Denken ist einfach zu kopflastig

08/02/2023

Review by Wiener Zeitung of WELTGEIST Exhibition with John Robinson and others.

In German

WELTGEIST

18/01/2023 - 13/02/2023

Taking place at Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, the exhibition “Weltgeist” opening on January 18 will aim to explore the power of humanism and how it has equipped itself through history to fathom the enormity of not knowing the fundamentals of its own existence, which has caused ideologies, governmental systems, religiosity and other belief systems to function in its ersatz. Stern has included seven international artists whose respective practices illuminate the subject. Janine Antoni - USA, Reza Aramesh - IRAN/U.K., Arvida Byström - SWEDEN, Alejandro Jodorowsky - CHILE/FRANCE, Hermann Nitsch, AUSTRIA, John Robinson, U.K. and Penny Slinger - USA.

The exhibition is loosely based on the principles of Hegel’s views on the Weltgeist (World spirit), not as an actual object or an all-encompassing, all-present God figure, but as a secular means to better understand and to philosophise about history.

John Robinson Solo Show "THUG"

26/03/2022 - 21/05/2022

John Robinson's works are inspired by the tradition of old masters of the 16th and 17th centuries, including the likes of Velazquez, Caravaggio and Goya, with particular attention to the self-portrait technique previously adopted by the likes of Dürer and Rembrandt and more recently by Frida Kahlo.

Robinson's figurative works offer a contemporary take on the rich tradition of portraiture. For the most part, the production of new visual signifiers is defined in accordance with one's own time, referring to mechanical reproduction, to moving images, and to digitization that took place in the twentieth century. Robinson's painting, on the other hand, appears problematic and laborious and offers a long path towards information, where skill and boredom coexist with equal equity in the painter's artistic research. This is a strange calling that provides an internship for one's theoretical death in correspondence with the speed of new contemporary artistic movements and trends

John Robinson Solo show - "CNUT"

13/11/2021 - 15/01/2022

John Robinson’s technical prowess could be seen to be shared with the great pantheon of masters of the 17th and 18th centuries including artists such as Diego Velazquez and Francisco Goya with a developing unguarded focus on self portraiture adopted by the likes of Rembrandt Van Rijn or more recently Frida Kahlo. However Robinson’s figurative works offer a contemporary subversion of the rich tradition of self portraiture. Somber protagonists dominate the canvas, usually presented in theatrical situations which barely mask a more prosaic ‘kitchen sink’ vulnerability. They are often simultaneously absurdly comic and psychologically revealing. Robinson’s process often involves private performance, where his actions are then exquisitely rendered, in oil on canvas. For Robinson these paintings embrace personal concern, disclosure and catharsis, for the voyeur the experience appears both elaborately grandiose and awkwardly revealing.