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| Peter
James Smith |  |  |  | | | | | | | | | Biography
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An installation
of paintings by Peter James Smith is cinematic - like reading visual images in
a darkened room - yet the narrative sense remains open-ended. Many fluid unfoldings
happen as the viewer shifts to engage with word and image, blackness and illumination.
Realist imagery is balanced by strong mark making and text. A revelatory light
illuminates the painted scenes. Still life and landscape images juxtapose with
scientific observations, poetic and historical references in the form of handwritten
citations, notes, jottings, diagrams and erasures.
The painted objects
are a natural extension from the traditional format of oil on linen and invite
a looser approach. Found objects, such as a book of verse, pile of bricks and
a Chinese vase, provide a resonant beginning for the artist before intersecting
with the surface and bring a Beuysian sense of the charismatic object –
one that has a life that may remain unobserved to many people.
Peter
James Smith addresses the role images play in the formation of memory and identity,
both in the individual and collective senses. His works celebrate a sublime sense
of possibility and the excitement of discovery while admitting the blacker counterpart
of action: accident, disaster and uncertainty. His works chart the desire for
progress born of scientific invention and enquiry - and create a space for the
imagination, for nostalgic reflection and wonder.
Born in Paparoa, New
Zealand in 1954, Peter James Smith is a prolific artist, holding several solo
exhibitions each year. He has worked in both New Zealand and Australia since the
mid 1970's as a contemporary painter and is currently based in Melbourne. His
practice is built from the traditional painting medium of oil on linen. He is
widely published as a mathematician and holds the degrees BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD
with a Master of Fine Art in Painting. He is currently a Professor of Mathematics
and Art with the School of Creative Media at RMIT University, where he is Head
of the School of Creative Media (photography, creative writing, screenwriting,
multimedia, music, sound, digital art).
Peter James Smith has participated
in many group exhibitions throughout Australia since 1994. His work is represented
in many public, private and corporate collections in Australia, New Zealand and
internationally.
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