John Z. Robinson

Who is John Z. Robinson?

John Z. Robinson is a New Zealand artist and jeweller. He has lived in Dunedin, New Zealand since 1978.

Robinson completed a manufacturing jewellery apprenticeship with Max Wilson in Palmerston North in 1973. From 1978 to 1980, he attended Otago Polytechnic School of Art in Dunedin where he was tutored in painting by Walden Tucker and the English-born artist Bernard Holman. 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 and prints are primarily figurative though his prints often focus entirely on words, frequently with punning intent. His paintings tend to be impressionistic, whether they be landscapes and townscapes or portraits.

Robinson's paintings and prints have been exhibited throughout New Zealand and works are included in the collections of the Hocken Library, the Manawatu Art Gallery, the Rotorua Museum and the Wallace Arts Trust. Robinson was awarded the William Hodges Fellowship and was artist-in-residence at the Southland Museum in Invercargill in 1998.