Introducing Robyn Fleet
Robyn Fleet was born in Hastings in 1974. Having discovered her hunger for travel and cultural experiences, she explored the world for 14 years, based mainly in Sydney and London.
Robyn returned to Hawke’s Bay, subsequently studying and graduating with a Bachelor of Art and Design. Since 2013 she has exhibited in several public galleries and has been developing a contemporary art space for children’s classes and workshops, alongside art programmes for aged care.
Robyn works mainly in oil paints and oil sticks, obsessed with the materiality of paint and its possibilities. A principal theme in her work is the human condition, lately she is particularly concerned with issues surrounding racism, and tries to express both open-ended possibility and imagination through her art.
“My work is about my process of how I arrive at my images. It is the intention of my work to suggest avenues of emotion and thought, the human experience through sensations of materiality and tactility.”
Meet the Jury Series
Drawn from Picasso’s blue period, Robyn Fleet explores the human condition, a common thread in her practice. In this series, Fleet has created fictitious sworn-in jury members.
“I was summoned for jury service in 2022. My name was pulled out of the box, but the process was stopped as the case resolved itself that afternoon. There were about 60 of us squashed into a room. I looked around and observed all the people that could have been part of the jury process. There was a gentleman sitting next to me, also desperate to get on the jury, his name got called out, he was ecstatic.
We were going to be called back later that afternoon. He went home to mow his lawns. I went back to my studio and started a process of mark-making, jury member characters started appearing through materials of oil sticks, bristly brushes, rags and sticky oil paints.
Why the jury members? I’m interested in the processes we take to start and end with a certain outcome.”
