KEZ ROBINSON, Artist

Originally from Sydney, Australia, Kez now lives in New York, USA and creates contemporary artworks from her studio in Manhattan.  Her work of coordinating global visual projects for the United Nations has enabled a life of visual and cultural riches. She has lived and worked on four continents: Australia, Europe, Africa and the USA.  

In 2016, after being a working designer and photographer for over 20 years, Kez transitioned to devote herself to a full-time professional art practice, She describes herself as “multidisciplinary” and considers Action Painting as the most apt description of her studio practice; a term coined in 1952 by art critic Harold Rosenburg as unleashing artists’ instinctive creative forces, and as a dialog between painter, materials and the canvas.

Kez is ever curious to explore different techniques that may offer new expressive possibilities for visual storytelling. Experimentation with techniques and materials and the celebration of color have become central to her creative process.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I have absorbed, loved and pursued art, design and engagement with color all my life.  In me, the passion to paint is innate, powerful and emotive, and I am ever drawn to creating, to stepping on that cyclical path of fear, indecision, bravery, vulnerability and passion.

Like Notable abstract expressionist artists and pioneers in technique Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, I have little interest in identifying with a focal point in my paintings.  Rather, I seek to encourage curiosity across the entire painting; to create an artwork that the viewer feels compelled to move closer to, to contemplate or be intrigued by.  Ultimately, I desire to achieve a painting that invites exchanges between reality, enchantment and raw truth.

My studio practice, until recently, has involved layering acrylic paints, mediums and materials, writing into the wet paint then scraping and watering, essentially deconstructing those layers.  I performed this action until satisfied with the texture and the story told by the painting.  The different layers would fuse to become a kaleidoscope of beautiful forms.  Only the strongest and most resilient of the materials survive the process to evolve as generational layering, in turn, becoming an historical record of my hand and my process.  The mood and life of the painting created correspond directly to the energy that I apply to this process.

During the year 2020, I enjoyed some eureka moments in my creative journey. The 12 months of isolation demanded by the CoVid pandemic, offered me the precious commodity of time, to further explore and experiment with the alluring qualities of paints and materials. I have developed a unique technique to integrate 3D acrylic paint forms with the substrate painted surface thereby creating the appearance of a sculptural relief painting. The resulting creations have been described as “at once striking, complex, engaging and affecting.”.

EXHIBITIONS

2021 Group exhibition, Pictor Gallery, New York, USA

2021 New York Art Expo, New York, USA

2020 ‘International Women’s Day’, juried group exhibition, One Art Space Gallery, New York, USA

2020 ‘LIC-A’, juried group exhibition, New York, USA

2019 ‘Off the Wall’, group exhibition, Plaxall Gallery, New York, USA

2019 The Other Art Fair, Dallas, Texas, USA

2019 ‘Creative Mosaic’, group exhibition, Plaxall Gallery, New York, USA

2016 ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, group exhibition, Retrospect Galleries, Byron Bay, Australia

2016 ‘Back to Back Realised’, solo exhibition, New York, USA

2016 Group exhibition (painting), Phyllis Harriman Gallery, New York, USA

2015 ‘DREAMS’ group exhibition, Gallery d’Arte, New York, USA

2015 Group exhibition (painting), Phyllis Harriman Gallery, New York, USA

2012 'Envisioning’, A Trio of Photographers, Serena Hotel, Kampala, Uganda

2010 BBC World Wildlife Photography: achieving inclusion of seven photographs in the semi-finals

2006 Solo Exhibition (Photography), Bujumbura, Burundi

ART EDUCATION

2018-Present Resident Artist, Studio Back2Back, LIC, New York

2018  Resident artist at Art345, East Harlem, New York

2014 & 2016  Studied painting and drawing at The Art Students League of New York, USA with mentors:

Ronnie Landfield - abstract expressionist painting

Kenneth McIndoe - painting

Costa Vivagiakis - anatomical drawing

Barbara Yeterian - abstract expressionist painting

Paul Ching Bor - watercolour techniques

Elizabeth Allison - expressive watercolour

Notable artists such as Jackson Pollack, Georgia O'Keefe, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, Alexander Calder attended the Art Student's League of New York.

1999 Oil Painting Techniques with Karl Walt, Vienna

1998 Completed a postgraduate degree in Design, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

1997  Completed a Diploma in Colour and Design, School of Colour and Design, Sydney, Australia