John Z. Robinson

Robinson completed a four-and-a-half-year manufacturing jewellery apprenticeship with Max Wilson in Palmerston North in 1973 and then worked with Roy Evans at Arcade Jewellers in Timaru.[1] From 1978 to 1980, he attended Otago Polytechnic School of Art in Dunedin where he was tutored in painting by Tom Field, Bernard Holman and Walden Tucker[2] and in sculpture by Fred Staub. He graduated with a Diploma in Fine Arts and returned to complete Honours in 1996.

Robinson has worked as a designer, jeweller, painter, print-maker and sculptor. He is a colourist whose paintings (acrylic) and prints (linocut) are primarily figurative[3] though his prints often focus entirely on words, frequently with punning intent. His paintings tend to be impressionistic, whether they be landscapes and townscapes[4] or portraits.[5] Painting, for Robinson, "is a very subtle thing. You use a soft brush and apply paint and it's all about the gestural type of thing. With printmaking, you've got to push a chisel through the lino, whereas jewellery is all about metal and sawing and hammering, filing and shaping. One has no resistance; one has a little bit of resistance and one has a hell of a lot of resistance".[6]

Amongst Robinson's many commissions have been set designs for theatrical productions of Entertaining Mr Sloane, School for Scandal, The Pearl Fishers and Twelfth Night, and book cover designs for Caclin (Lincoln University), Canzona, When Two Men Embrace: The New Zealand Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Poetry, SPORT 7, and The Journal of New Zealand Literature.

Robinson's paintings and prints have been exhibited throughout New Zealand and works are included in the Hocken Collections, and the collections of Te Manawa, the Rotorua Museum and the Wallace Arts Trust. He was awarded the William Hodges Fellowship and was artist-in-residence at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill in 1998. In 2006, the Port Gallery in Port Chalmers featured a retrospective of thirty years of Robinson's work in a show entitled John Z Robinson. A Survey of Paintings and Prints.

He has exhibited his paintings in Otaru in Japan and in New York City and his jewellery has been shown in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States, most notably at the Bead International in Athens, Ohio in 2000. From 18 August 2007 until 21 February 2010, Robinson's jewellery featured in an exhibition entitled The Scots in New Zealand at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington.

Robinson was one of twenty-six artists invited by the Department of Conservation to travel to Tamatea (Dusky Sound) in winter 2014 and summer 2015. Their task was to connect people with this special area by offering them a glimpse of an unseen world.[7] In a response to his experience, Robinson produced a set of six sterling silver spoons tagged with Department of Conservation bird tags and two lino cuts. These were shown as part of a group exhibition entitled Tamatea. Art and Conservation in Dusky Sound at Bowen House in Wellington in November and December 2016 and at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill in December 2016 to February 2017.

Robinson's painting and print work featured in two books published in 2003 and 2004 respectively, being Other Men's Flowers. Portraits by John Z. Robinson, which concentrates on close up portraits of men, each paired with a painting of a flower, and Lake Warhola Soup - The Word-Prints of J. Z. Robinson, which focuses entirely on Robinson's punning monochromatic linocuts.

In December 2007, Longacre Press published Parallel Lines: Riding the Central Otago Rail Trail which included paintings of Central Otago by Robinson together with poetry by Annie Villiers.

Three books featuring Robinson's drawings and paintings were published in 2008 and 2009 – John Z. Robinson's 'The Dream of Endymion', Amy Bock – A Series of Drawings by John Z. Robinson and The Male Figure in the Art of John Z. Robinson.

A book entitled Red Studio: Forty-Five Prints was published by Longacre Press in October 2009 and celebrates Robinson's print-making career. The forty-five prints, mostly linocuts, were selected from a collection of simple but expressive prints. With an introduction by novelist Laurence Fearnley, the book is an intimate portrait of the artist's development. Of the book and the work in it, Robinson stated that he "wanted to show what he could do, so there are portraits, landscapes, abstracts and more conceptual works. There are also different techniques, like monoprints, and works using different inks".[8]

A survey of Robinson's paintings was held at the TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre in Auckland in 2013. This exhibition coincided with the publication of a further book entitled J. Z. Robinson. Paintings which contains a comprehensive overview of his painting career.

In 2015, Ravenwood Press published April by Annie Villiers and Robinson. The book contains a poetic narrative by Villiers and drawings by Robinson which reflect on the transition from late summer to early winter, in particular as it evolves in the south. Anzac Day and reflections on the place of Gallipoli in the April journey become part of the narrative through drawings and words.

• Coutts, B. I., John Z. Robinson's 'The Dream of Endymion'. Auckland, New Zealand, 2008. ISBN 978-0-473-13661-1.
• Coutts, B. I., Graczer, P. B., and Templeton, M., The Male Figure in the Art of John Z. Robinson. Auckland, New Zealand, 2009. ISBN 978-0-473-14456-2.
• Coutts, B. I., notes from grey city. James Kerr and John Z. Robinson. Auckland, New Zealand, 2010. ISBN 978-0-473-17618-1.
• Douglas, D., ed. (June–July 2019). "Meet the designer...introducing JWNZ member and contemporary Dunedin jeweller John Z Robinson". Jewellery Time. Auckland, New Zealand: Inklink Publications Limited.
• Fearnley, L., 100s and 1000s. John Z. Robinson. Lure Jewellery, Dunedin, New Zealand, August 2008.
• Graczer, P. B., Other Men's Flowers. Portraits by John Z. Robinson. Auckland, New Zealand, 2003. ISBN 0-473-09718-4. (Reprinted as of Aztecs, Azaleas and Acquaintances in Lino, Issue No. 6, 2004, pp. 94–99).
• Graczer, P. B., Lake Warhola Soup. The Word-Prints of J. Z. Robinson. Auckland, New Zealand, 2004. ISBN 0-476-01072-1.
• Graczer, P. B., Amy Bock. A Series of Drawings by John Z. Robinson. Auckland, New Zealand, 2009. ISBN 978-0-473-14509-5.
• Hardie, C., John Z. Robinson: A Survey of Paintings and Prints. Port Gallery, Port Chalmers, 7 April – 27 May 2006. Port Gallery, Port Chalmers, 2006.
• Jensen, K. and Robinson, J. Z., The great Dunedin volcano. K. Jensen, Dunedin, New Zealand, 1987. ISBN 0-473-00442-9.
• McCluskey, M., A Noble Piece: Contemporary Jewellery Constructed from Noble Metals and Issues. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Jewellery at Lure Works, Dunedin, New Zealand, 3–15 December 2001. Lure Works Limited, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2001.
• McGahey, K. (2000). The Concise Dictionary of New Zealand Artists, Painters, Printmakers, Sculptors. Wellington, New Zealand: Gilt Edge Publishing. ISBN 0-473-05802-2.
• Robinson, J. Z., Red Studio: Forty-Five Prints. Longacre Press, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2009. ISBN 978-1-877460-38-8.
• J Z Robinson. Paintings. Auckland, New Zealand, 2013. ISBN 978-0-473-24095-0.
• Tamatea. Art and Conservation in Dusky Sound, Wellington: Department of Conservation, October 2016
• The Chief Post Office 1937. A Commemorative Art – Heritage Brochure Celebrating a Part of Dunedin's History. Featuring Artists Manu Berry, Claire Beynon, Peter Booth, Erin Dellow, Alan Dove, Frank Gordon, Rochelle Liggins, John Z. Robinson, Jo St Baker, Lynn Taylor and Julie Whitefield. A Salisbury House Gallery Production, Dunedin, 4 October 2008.
• The Otago Arts Trust, Otago Arts Guide, Art Roads of Otago. Dunedin, New Zealand, 2002. ISBN 0-473-08054-0.
• Villiers, A. and Robinson, J. Z., Parallel Lines: Riding the Central Otago Rail Trail. Longacre Press, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2007. ISBN 978-1-877361-92-0.
• Villiers, A. and Robinson, J. Z., April. Ravenwood Press, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2015. ISBN 978-0-473-30056-2.

• Robinson's art at Moray Gallery, Dunedin