Brian Robinson
1973
Totem: Black Neck Stilt & Shark (Black Tip)
Brian Robinson received an Associate Diploma of Visual Arts and an Advanced Certificate in Visual Arts from the Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE, Cairns. Robinson then started work as a trainee curator at the Cairns Regional Gallery in 1997 through the Museum Australia Curatorial Internship program. In 2004 Robinson did internships with the National Museum of Australia and the National Gallery of Australia. He was then appointed the Exhibitions Manager and Deputy Director of Cairns Regional Gallery in 2006. In 2010 Robinson left his position at the Cairns Regional Gallery to work as a full time artist.
In 2013 Robinson won the Western Australian Indigenous Art Award as well as the People’s Choice Award at the Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards. Over his career he has been chosen for art residencies including ones at the Shalini Ganendra Fine Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur; Shangri La, Cairns; Pymble Ladies College, Sydney; Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking, Cairns and Art ou Artifice Torres Strait Art Noumea, New Caledonia.
Robinson has had several solo exhibitions including ‘Malu Girel’, Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns (2000); ‘men + GODS’, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns (2012); ‘Brian Robinson’, Mossenson Galleries booth, Artstage Singapore (2014); ‘Zenadh Kes: Art is Life’, Shalini Ganandra Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur (2014); ‘Earthly Bound: Brain Robinson’, Mossenson Galleries. Perth (2015) and ‘Gods, Ghosts + Men: The Art of Brian Robinson’, Michael Reid, Sydney (2015).
Robinson has also been a part of national and international group exhibitions including ‘On the Edge’, touring Queensland and International tour to India (2009); ‘Performative Prints from the Torres Strait’, The Arts Centre, Melbourne (2013); ‘Chain Reaction’, Artisan Gallery, Brisbane (2013); ‘Solid: Queensland Contemporary Indigenous Sculpture’, CIAF 2014, Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns (2014); ‘Here Right Now: A Powerful Regional Voice in our Democracy’, Regional Arts Australia, Old Parliament House, Canberra (2015).
Robinson works are held in significant national and international collections.
"Brian Robinson believes that he would eat art if he could.
"My drive as an artist is art itself," he says. "As artists we see the world as how it should be and not as it is."
His ease at translating the environment and ancestral stories into visual form in exciting, visually stimulating and creative media can be seen from his earliest linocut prints, through to his prints, paintings and sculptures today.
Brian commenced art studies from 1992 to 1996 before commencing employment with Cairns Regional Gallery in 1997 as a trainee curator through the Museums Australia Curatorial Internship program.
In 2004, he completed internships with both the National Museum of Australia and the National Gallery of Australia and has since collaborated as co-curator on exhibitions with both institutions. In 2006 he was appointed Exhibitions Manager and Deputy Director of Cairns Regional Gallery. A position he held until the end of 2010, which then saw the commencement of his full-time arts career.
"I have a very supportive family, my wife Tanya and three children Amber, Raidon and Leonardo," says Brian.
His practice includes painting, printmaking, sculpture and design. His sculptural practice steams from the discipline of constructivism, a style of sculpture based on carefully structured modules, which allow for intricate patterns of repetition.
"Printmaking on the other-hand (etching and linocut) is linear in composition and appearance," he says. "The spirit and natural world are so intertwined that one influences the other, and is essential to the everyday existence of the Torres Strait Island people, their culture and their beliefs."
Brian's work has contributed significantly to the environment of Cairns where he lives through a number of major public art installations, including his signature five stainless steel woven fish sculptures and fountain installed on the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon in 2003.
Brian says the support from his family plus his commitment and dedication to his work has allowed him to follow his dreams and he teaches this to his children and other young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people."
© The State of Queensland (Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships) 2010–2018.
Queensland Government
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