Sally Robinson (born 1952) is an English-born Australian artist. She has had a long career as a portrait artist and designer, painter and printmaker, teacher and lecturer. Her work is represented in private and public collections around Australia.
Early life and education
Robinson was born in England in 1952
and emigrated to
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
in 1960.
She studied for four years at the
National Art School
The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in , an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts ...
in
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, graduating in 1973.
Career
Designer and lecturer
From 1974 to 1983 Robinson worked at the Australian Museum
The Australian Museum, originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney, William Street, Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, New South Wales. It is the oldest natural ...
in Sydney as a designer, a position which allowed her to travel to remote areas of Australia. In her private practice in her studio, Robinson’s screen prints captured those places, and established her reputation in the printmaking community.
From 1976 to 1983 Robinson was also teaching part-time at Alexander Mackie College (subsequently renamed the City Art Institute). After leaving the Museum Robinson spent four years as a full-time lecturer at the City Art Institute (which became the College of Fine Arts, UNSW and is now called UNSW Art & Design).
Career and early years
From the 1970s till the early 1990s Sally Robinson worked as a fine art screen printer. She became recognised in the Australian printmaking community for bold and humorous depictions of Australian culture, landscape, flora and fauna, which were collected by private and State Galleries. These screen prints depicted iconic tourist destinations around the country such as Bondi Beach, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kakadu, The Twelve Apostles.
After receiving an Australian Antarctic Division
The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) is a division of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment & Water. The division undertakes science programs and research projects to contribute to an understanding of Antarctica and the S ...
Humanities Program Award in 1991, Robinson travelled to the Australian bases of Mawson, Davis, and Heard Island
The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) is an Australian external territory comprising a volcanic group of mostly barren Antarctic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. The group's overall land ...
. This voyage resulted in a series of ten silk screen prints documenting her response to the ice, history and wildlife of Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
.
Mature career
In the late 1990s Robinson made a shift from silk screens back to painting, which was her first love, incorporating and adapting the stencil technique from printmaking to create dynamic, pixelated surface textures in acrylic on linen canvas. The resulting portraits have garnered critical attention for the sensitivity of the portraits combined with the boldly fragmented surfaces. A deeply moving portrait of "The Artist's Mother" in the final stage of terminal cancer won the Portia Geach Memorial Award in 2012. This portrait travelled to the Embassy of Australia in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
as part of a group exhibition by Portrait Artists Australia.
Robinson has received many portrait commissions, both private and institutional. Portrait commissions include Sir Keith Peters, Regis Professor of Physic (for Cambridge University UK), Sir Bruce Ponder, Emeritus Professor of Oncology at the University of Cambridge (for CRUK Institute, Cambridge, UK); Mary Gaudron, first woman High Court Judge of Australia (for NSW Law Society) and Professor Sir Keith Peters for the Academy of Medical Sciences, London. Robinson’s portrait of Brett Weymark, the conductor of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, was hung in a group exhibition by Portrait Artists Australia at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra
Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...
in 2012. Robinson's portrait of Tim Winton
Timothy John Winton (born 4 August 1960) is an Australian writer. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and has won the ...
was hung in the 2019 Darling Portrait Prize in the National Portrait Gallery (Australia)
The National Portrait Gallery, also known as the National Portrait Gallery of Australia (NGA or NPGA) in Canberra is a public art gallery containing portraits of prominent Australians. It was established in 1998 and moved to its present buildin ...
, and subsequently acquired for the collection.
Robinson has created a series of penetrating self-portraits, one of which won the Portia Geach Memorial Award in 2019 – "Body in A Box".
Robinson has exhibited her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions all around Australia during her 45-year career. Sally Robinson's studio and gallery are located in the historic Astor building in Macquarie Street, Sydney.
Awards and recognition
Robinson has been a frequent finalist in major art competitions including the Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...
, the Doug Moran Portrait Prize, the Blake Prize
The Blake Prize, formerly the Blake Prize for Religious Art, is an List of Australian art awards, Australian art prize awarded for art that explores spirituality. Since the inaugural prize in 1951, the prize was awarded annually from 1951 to 2 ...
, and the Darling Portrait Prize.
She has also been awarded several prizes, including:
*2015: Gallipoli Art Prize, for her painting "Boy Soldiers" commemorating the deaths of the youngest soldiers, stencilling their names across the image of the graveyard in Lone Pine Cemetery in Turkey
*2016: Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award at the Bega Valley Regional Gallery, for her portrait "Ella Rubeli"
*2012: Portia Geach Memorial Award
*2019: Portia Geach Memorial Award
*2021: Kennedy Prize, for "Bruce Squared", a portrait of her husband, Bruce Pussell
Collections
Robinson's works are represented in many corporate collections as well as regional and major galleries across Australia and internationally, including:
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Sally
1952 births
Australian portrait painters
21st-century Australian artists
Living people
20th-century Australian artists