1 - 19 November 2007
about the exhibition
Primarily a figurative painter, Peter Boggs paints deceptively simple settings that have a unique tonal quality. Peter’s works capture the emptiness and vacant qualities of once bustling towns in south western Victoria – near Casterton, Coleraine and Merino – while evoking a universal sense of place. “It is this emptiness … that attracts me …. the idea of the facade and the glimpse to something else beyond, echoes a lot in my work.” Peter continues to incorporate his great sense of geometry and formalism in these works whilst exploring a shift toward overtly architectural paintings. With the total absence of human figures, Peter adds an ethereal quality to these austere landscapes, and our attention is drawn to the precise structural composition and carefully observed shadow and pale light. This strategy also coerces the viewer into an engagement with what is not shown, the implication of a reality separate from that which we initially see. As art critic Sasha Grishin says of Peter’s work “the indication of these other realities is not made through obvious symbols, … but through the manipulation of the formal elements of structure, colour, light and shadow.” Apart from recording scenes like an observer, Peter aims to explore the ideas of constancy and change within his landscapes.
Born in New Zealand, Peter studied at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, and taught painting and drawing in England and Spain before moving to Australia in 1987. He has held over thirty solo exhibitions in New Zealand and Australia, and was a finalist in both the McMillan Ford Art Award and the Fleurieu Biennale, South Australia. In 1998, he won the Tattersall Club Landscape Art Prize. Peter’s work is represented in various collections including Parliament House, Canberra; Kedumba Drawing Collection, NSW; News Limited; Tattersall’s Club, Brisbane; Telstra; NZ Education Board; Dilworth Trust Board; Auckland City Art Gallery and the Ross Perot Collection, Texas, USA. This is Peter’s first exhibition with Beaver Galleries.
