FEATURE: James Robinson – ‘Open and Close’ and new works on paper
Open and Close (Pyramid series #6)
James Robinson
2019, canvas, fabric and mixed media, 2200 x 2200mm
(sold)
Notes on ‘Open and Close’
James Robinson, 2019
This canvas and fabric collage is part of a series of mandalas after a long journey through India and Egypt in 2018. It’s both a tunnel and a pyramid. Art for me is the alchemy of making in creation. Creation influencing creation. Signposts of the soul’s journey in this life.
The pyramid serves as a wonderful form of the primary physical dimensions of material life. It is a genesis point of mystery schools of science and technology. Consciousness, as a wave and a point, is embedded in the act of perception – perception of the perceived. Art is a boundary pointing at boundarylessness.
“The eye I see ‘god’ with is the same eye ‘god’ sees me with” – Meister Eckhart, 12th century Christian mystic.
My narratives tumble in the accelerated control reality tunnel of the culture creating me.
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James Robinson has two modes of working. One is open, abstract, frequently large-scale and sweeping in its scope. The other grabs details of memory and thought as if to record the struggle of life and art in a notebook. The two modes are inextricably bound together.
Below are nine new works on paper from his Luck Up series. Some contain collaged pyramids in miniature. They are mixed media, approximately A3 and were all produced in 2020 during lockdown.
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James Robinson was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1972 and currently lives in Port Chalmers, Dunedin. He completed a Bachelor Of Fine Arts, Otago School of Fine Arts in 2000, Diploma In Art And Craft, Hungry Creek School of Art and Craft, 1996 and Foundation In Fine Art, Nelson Polytechnic, 1990.
Robinson has exhibited regularly in private and public galleries both nationally and internationally. In 2007 he was awarded the prestigious Wallace Art residency in New York. In 2008 he was artist in residence at McCahon House Titirangi and was resident artist at Tylee Cottage, Whanganui later the same year. In 2019 he won People’s Choice award at the Parkin Award exhibition in Wellington with a In and Out, a large work from his Pyramid series. His work is urgently thoughtful, honest and direct. This is particularly evident in his drawings. Through creative exploration of materials he maps the territory of his psyche.
James Robinson’s work is held in numerous public, private and corporate collections throughout New Zealand and Australia such as James Wallace Trust Collection, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, Eastern Southland Gallery, Ashburton Art Gallery, Te Manawa Museum, Otago University and New Contemporaries collection, Sydney.
Exhibitions at PG gallery192:
Witches’ Song, 2023
EDGELAND, 2020
Rock Action, 2017
Anthropocene and Asylum, 2015
Majic Defends Itself – artist talk
Video about James Robinson’s practice, 2017
David Eggleton poetry with mural OLD BRAIN 3
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For more information about James Robinson:
www.jamesrobinson.nz