Jenny Robinson

Originally from London, Jenny Robinson studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking in the United Kingdom. After living in San Francisco for 20-years, she moved to Slovenia before recently relocating to Australia as the founder of the Jenny Robinson Print Studio (JRPS) in Sydney’s Inner West. Robinson has exhibited widely internationally, and is a passionate exponent of printmaking and works on paper. In 2019, she was awarded the prestigious Mario Avati Gravure Laureate Award from the Academic des Beaux Arts in Paris, France, where she had a retrospective solo exhibition in September 2021. She has won numerous awards, including a Fellowship at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica di Venezia, Italy; The Vermont Studio Center Printmaking Fellowship; was the Summer visiting Artist at NSCAD, Canada and Alfred University, NY, amongst others.

Robinson’s works are in many private and public collections, including the Library of Congress Arts Collection, Washington DC, The Achenbach Fine Print Collection, San Francisco, The Boston Museum of Fine Art, MA, The Art Council of Great Britain, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK, as select examples.

Tell us about your creative process. What drives your practice?

My practice emerges from the observation and study of the architectural and structural infrastructure of the places I have lived in and visited throughout my life. Drawing is fundamental to understanding a space, and so through firsthand observation, I create human-sized, two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional spaces that frame and inform the contemporary urban experience and the spaces we inhabit. I believe that experimentation, pushing boundaries and expanding on what is traditionally accepted as a ‘print’, is the way forward for our under appreciated medium. Consideration of materials, scale, installation and reinvention, as well as taking a more non-toxic approach are central to my practice and how I see the future of printmaking.

What draws you to urban architecture as the subject of your work, and how do you approach representing it through print?

I am primarily concerned with my personal firsthand experience of a specific place and time. The images I make are a carefully-constructed, first-person record of a temporary place at a fleeting moment in time – the conceptualisation of ideas related to fragility, strength and the transience of our man-made environment. Both my father and grandfather were civil engineers and I think I am genetically hard wired to look at how things are built and how a structure can affect the space we inhabit. I am interested in exploring the juxtapositions between the impermanence of the ostensibly permanent elements around us and how that can visually change over time. Over the past 5 years or so – and as a direct result of a change in the materials I use – I have taken a more abstracted approach to my subject matter. I am more interested in reconstructing an image to form a less literal interpretation of the subject matter, transforming it into something less recognisable, but still rooted in a personal interaction with my immediate environment. The structures I depict often exist in their own space, unidentifiable – yet, familiar – in the armature of lines and architectural curves that form them.

What is the significance of paper in your material and conceptual practice?

My large-scale dry points are printed almost exclusively on Gampi shi and other lightweight Japanese papers. I used to print a lot on Western papers, but my whole approach to material choices changed when I did a workshop in working with Gampi, a tissue thin Japanese paper. I learnt the traditional scroll making techniques of seaming and backing Gampi and never looked back. These traditional approaches, combined with my more experimental and contemporary practice opened a whole new world for me. The fragile translucently of the paper compliments – both conceptually and physically – the notions of impermanence and fragility, which I have always been preoccupied with. Experimentation and the consideration of various materials plays an important role in the development of a concept. Due to their lightweight nature, Eastern papers allow for creating much larger works by seaming smaller prints together, or creating multilayered work and installations.

You recently opened your own print atelier, Jenny Robinson Print Studio, in inner-Sydney. Can you tell us more about your ‘open-access’ studio? What inspired you to set up your own space?

After living in America for 20-years and then spending two-years in Slovenia, we were trying to decide where we wanted to live next. We had plans to stay in Europe but ‘Brexit’ made that difficult. My husband is from Australia and our sons are here at the moment, so it made sense to come back to a country where we spoke the language  and had friends and family. Trying to keep a career afloat when you have moved country four times gets more and more difficult and so I wanted to start a print studio, so that I would have somewhere to work and help to create a print community in the  Inner West, so that I could also try to have a sense of belonging again in a new country. We  arrived in Sydney at the end of 2022 and managed to find a small warehouse to renovate in Darlington, where we are now up and running as of January 2024. 

We are really excited about the programs we have to offer and have already run a couple of masterclass workshops with international artists teaching, as well as offer an open access program, a key-holder program and a huge press – which I bought with the prize money I received  when I won the the Mario Avati prize in Paris – for artists of all disciplines to work with master printers to create new bodies of work. The big press American French Tool Press (AFT), bed size 240cm x 132cm  (96” x 52”), will be specifically for project-based work and is aimed at artists who want to develop a new body of large scale unique prints, including huge monotypes using our massive monotype plates, experimental large scale works on paper, or simply come and use the print press to make editions of exisiting large plates.

Our ‘Project Room’ has two etching presses: a Hildav (110cm x 71cm) and a small etching press (60cm x 40cm). These presses will be available for hire for people to come print editions, make new work, continue working on existing projects, and will be a calm, quiet, and independent space. Additionally, we will have a reduced rate for graduate printmakers who want to continue working in print after leaving college for their first year after graduating. We will also be introducing a ‘Key-holder’ program for the ‘Project Room’ for experienced printmakers, and we will offer mentorships and intensives for rusty printmakers to commit to 2 months over a given period, where they can access the project room for up to 4-days a week with other like-minded artists. We hope to encourage a strong print community where artists  can meet other printmakers over dinner, informal artists’ talks and crits, and generally have a lovely time printmaking .

Are there any female printmakers | artists that influence you?

I admire so many women artists and so many of my contemporaries, most of whom, it must be said are not getting anywhere near the recognition they deserve. I always admire artist who do things I wouldn’t even think of, Cornelia Parker, Tacita Dean, Louise Bourgeoise spring to mind. I love Ruth Aswara’s work, a San Francisco artist, who again, didn’t get the recognition in her lifetime, but is now everywhere. Paula Rego is right at the top of my list of printmakers for her fearlessness and uncompromising subject matter. Her etchings on abortion are possibly more relevant today than perhaps when she made them – she was one of a kind and all her prints are incredible!

Finally, what exciting projects are you working on at the moment?

After two-years of renovating the warehouse, I am slowly (too slowly) getting back into my practice after 2.5 years. I can’t wait and have ideas bubbling up which I can’t wait to get started on. There is a bit of admin (not my favourite pastime) which I have to get out of the way relating to the studio but I am already back on the fringes of my practice. In May this year, I have been invited to the Printopia printmaking conference in New Zealand to do some demos on seaming and backing Gampi paper, and to be the keynote speaker. In August, I have been invited to the wonderful Flatbed Press in Austin TX to make a series of prints with them. I am really looking forward to both these events!