Robinson's paintings and prints have been exhibited throughout New Zealand and works are included in the Hocken Collections, and the collections of Te Manawa, the Rotorua Museum and the Wallace Arts Trust. He was awarded the William Hodges Fellowship and was artist-in-residence at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill in 1998. In 2006, the Port Gallery in Port Chalmers featured a retrospective of thirty years of Robinson's work in a show entitled "John Z Robinson. A Survey of Paintings and Prints".