Jenni Robinson – New exhibition in our members gallery

Jenni works in drawing, printmaking and painting to navigate the change in identity and place-making associated with becoming a parent-artist.  

Previously described as a landscape artist, after the arrival of her son, Jenni’s sketchbooks shifted in subject to embrace the wider scope of “places” including the unremarkable, everyday spots that become the foundation of a family life & childhood.  Often these places are dual-edged, symbolic of other opportunities and places she can not be present for.

Copper etchings and screen prints provide a reproducible, editable format in which to develop ideas from these drawings and they are often playful; illustrating places, objects and times significant to her family.

Jenni also creates large soak-stain paintings in acrylic on canvas, enjoying the parallel between the materials and the emotional challenges that come with a fundamental change in identity. These paintings have come to express processing of parenthood;  limited control of the paint, drenching and assimilating with the canvas fibres, maintaining the surface’s softness despite all that is added.  They must also be left unfinished in order to dry, taking up all the available space and also fitting in with limited studio time as other priorities call.  Jenni uses these paintings to reflect on herself, with emotions and reactions to events translated in scale and colour.

The drawings, prints and paintings are fragments that have emerged over the pre-school years.  They waited patiently to be assembled  into a related practice and this is what Jenni strives to develop as they enter the school years and a more studio-friendly routine.

Jenni’s exhibition “The Fragment” opens on Thursday 27th August 2026 from 6-9pm as part of Bangor’s Late Night Art. The show continues until the 23rd October.