Historically known for his critical exploration of identity politics, Robinson’s early artworks examined his Maori ancestry and biculturalism. 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.

Select solo exhibitions: Die Cuts and Derivations, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, 2023; Agreements, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2023; Local Colour, Shane Cotton and Peter Robinson, Hamish McKay Gallery, Auckland, 2022; Forward Backwards, Coastal Signs, Auckland, 2022; Notations, Sutton Gallery, 2020; Peter Robinson, Fieldwork, CoCA Toi Moroki Centre of Contemporary Art, New Zealand, 2018; Schisms, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2017; Neologisms, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2015; SYNTAX, Artspace, Auckland, 2015; Recreation Centre, Nouveau Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2015; Pair et lmpair, Galerie Emmanuel Herve, Paris, 2014; Tribe Subtribe, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, 2013; Cuts and Junctures, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, 2013; The Influence of Anxiety, The Centre for Drawing Project Space, London, 2010; Polymer Monoliths, Artspace, Sydney and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2009; Line Works, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2008.

Select group exhibitions: Te Hau Whakatonu | A Series of Never-Ending Beginnings, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, 2023; Paemanu: Walls to Live Beside, Rooms to Own: The Chartwell Show, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2021; XXX: Celebrating 30 Years of Sutton Gallery, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne. 2021; Tauraka Toi: A Landing Place, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand, 2022; He Reka Te Kūmara, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand, 2021; Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, 2020; 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia 2019; Politics of Sharing-On Collective Wisdom, ifa-Gallerie, Berlin, 2016; Neither Forward nor Back: Acting in the Present, Jakarta Biennial, Indonesia, 2015; The Piranesi Effect, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2014; Mom, am I a barbarian?, 13^th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey, 2013; All our relations, 18th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, 2012; De-Building, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, 2011; Three Colours: Gordon Bennett and Peter Robinson, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2004.