Peter Robinson

Over Under , 2017, Annealed steel, 28,6 x 1,5 x 0,2 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Replicas , 2017, Annealed steel, 31 x 31 x 3 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Hanger , 2017, Steel pins and magnet, 3,5 x 3 x 2 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole, Collection Alexis Jakubowicz, Paris

Sign 2 , 2017, Annealed steel and iron, 34,5 x 3 x 7 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Pronto Proto , 2017, Annealed steel, 18,5 x 21 x 4,5 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Cluster , 2017, Annealed steel, 45 x 20 x 17 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Ascent , 2017, Annealed steel, 23 x 17 x 0,2 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Coil 2 , 2017, Iron, 43 x 6 x 7 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Diagram , 2017, Metal, 11 x 10 x 9 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Notations , 2017, Annealed steel, 30 x 17 x 2,5 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Peaks , 2017, Annealed steel, 18 x 27 x 0,2 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Tangle , 2017, Metal, 10 x 7,5 x 4,5 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Proto , 2017, Annealed steel, 33 x 5 x 0,2 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Aurélien Mole

Untitled , 2017, Wool felt, 47 x 17 x 0.5 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Philippe Munda

Untitled , 2017, Wool felt, 40.95 x 23.79 x 0.312 in, , unique artwork, Photo: Philippe Munda

Untitled , 2017, Wool felt, 24 x 4,7 x 0.8 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Philippe Munda

Untitled , 2017, Wool felt, 83 x 82 x 0.8 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Philippe Munda

Untitled , 2017, Wool felt, 169 x 335 x 0.8 cm, , unique artwork, Photo: Philippe Munda

Pair et Impair , 2014, Wool felt and plexiglass, Dimensions vary, , unique artwork, photo: Magali Joannon, Exhibition view at Art-O-Rama, 2014

Tribe Subtribe , 2013, Wool felt on metal rod, , unique artwork, photo: Mark Tantrum, Exhibition view at The Dowse Museum, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

Ruses & Legacies , 2013, Mixed Media, Variable size, , unique artwork, photo: Servet Dibler, installation view: The 13th Istanbul Biennial

, 2013, , unique artwork, Photo: Jennifer French, Installation view: Auckland Triennial 'If You Were To Live Here', Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland, New Zealand

If You Were To Work Here: The Mood In The Museum , 2013, , unique artwork, Photo: Jennifer French, Installation view: Auckland Triennial 'If You Were To Live Here', Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland, New Zealand

, 2012, Felt and wood, 125 objects, installation dimensions vary, , unique artwork, Installation view at Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand

Defunct Mnemonics , 2012, Felt and wood, 125 objects, installation dimensions vary, , unique artwork, Installation view at Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand

Defunct Mnemonics , 2012-2013, Wool felt & wood dowel, Diemensions vary, , unique artwork

Structure & Subjectivity , 2012, Wool felt on metal rod, 100 x 100 x 75 cm, , unique artwork

Gravitas Lite , 2012, , unique artwork, Installation view: All Our Relations, Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island

Polymer Monoliths , 2009, Polystyrene, , unique artwork, Photo: Richard Stringer, Exhibition view at Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia

ACK , 2008, , unique artwork, installation view: Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand

The Jacopetti Effect - Duck Rock Part 1 , 2000, Various objects, 550 x 1250 cm, , unique artwork, Collection Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France

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Presentation :

Peter Robinson (born in 1966 in Ashburton, New Zealand) studied sculpture at Ilam School of Fine Arts (1985-1989), and now lives and works in Auckland. Robinson is an important figure in the wave of second generation Mãori artists that emerged in the late eighties from the School of Fine Arts (Ilam) at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Well known in New Zealand for dealing with issues such as race relations in a provocative and controversial manner, Peter Robinson's practice has been characterised by elements of shock and surprise. He has continually shifted tack throughout his career in his use of materials and techniques and the content he addresses.

His work seems to exist in a constant state of flux and change and his subject matter also appears to swing between an articulation of intellectual ideas and pop culture but certain forms and ideas run through his practice. Originally trained as a sculptor, he has also worked in painting, drawing, installation and digital media. His style has varied from rough hand written text on placards to the slick, clean aesthetic of digital prints.

Robinson's early works were concerned with personal and racial issues as he analysed and responded to his part-Maori heritage. He used painting and sculpture to wittily critique assumed aspects of bi-culturalism, the branding of ethnicity, and careerist strategizing - while simultaneously embracing them. He created a series known as the Percentage Paintings in the early 1990s that discussed his specific racial make-up. The works posed the question to the viewer ? should a percentage of Maori blood determine his personal and social character, and his importance as an artist? He found that art critics began to stereotype him as a Maori artist but that personally he was not able to work in traditional Maori forms because this felt 'inauthentic'. Recognising this he changed direction and shocked art critics by adopting both Pakeha (non-Maori) and Maori voices often in a contradictory way. From this bi-cultural perspective Robinson could incisively comment on the complexities of race relations, both historical and contemporary, in New Zealand.

More recently, Robinson has shifted from this rhetoric and weight of interpretation to focus more exclusively on exploring and celebrating the materiality of the mediums with which he works such as felt, polystyrene, and steel. Interested in the play between order and disorder, density and lightness, dispersion and compression, Robinson creates bold, monumental and irrepressible forms where the idea of sculpture is often momentarily balanced between building up and breaking down. Indeed, Robinson's affection for materiality is regularly experienced as profusion and excess.

Robinson's work has been exhibited extensively in New Zealand and internationally. He was New Zealand's representative at the 49th Venice Biennale (2001), participated in the 13th Istanbul Biennale (2013), 11th and 18th Biennale of Sydney (1998/2012), and the 8th Baltic Triennale of International Art, Vilnius (2002). His work has been included in major international touring exhibitions including: Continental shift, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (2000); Toi Toi Toi: three generations of artists from New Zealand, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel (1999); and Cultural safety: contemporary art from New Zealand, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main (1995). Robinson was nominated for the Walters Prize in 2006 for The Humours at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and again in 2008 when he won for his exhibition ACK at Artspace, Auckland.