11 – 27 August 2022
about the exhibition
Throughout Peter Boggs’ career, he has been captivated by the mysterious qualities of light. In this exhibition, Peter continues this exploration in a slightly more spiritual context, working with the impact of light on the mood of vast Renaissance gardens. During the contemplative time of Covid, Peter began to reflect on one of his most beloved gardens, the Boboli in Florence. As he explains, “I began to find myself thinking more broadly and conceptually about these gardens – to see them more universally, more symbolically. The outcome is this group of pictures that aim to explore the more spiritual sense of this marvellous place… the idea of its moods impacted by the effects of light, the sense of the light, its feel and its temperature – the garden at night when darkness pervades it and the same subjects at dawn when the light is more diaphanous and ethereal”. This series of exquisitely resolved tonal paintings traverses scenes in darkness and light, studying how ephemeral light transforms the landscape. The literal depiction of these beautiful gardens is secondary to the emotional resonance that they hold for the artist. As eminent art critic and historian Professor Sasha Grishin has observed of Peter’s work, “They are memory paintings of feelings that he’s experienced when encountering the spaces, and it is these feelings that he shares with the beholder”.
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 fifty solo exhibitions in New Zealand and Australia, and was a finalist in both the McMillan Ford Art Award and the Fleurieu Biennale, South Australia. He was the winner of the 2008 Kedumba Drawing Award as well as the 1998 Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize. He has been a finalist in numerous prizes including most recently the 2020 Calleen Art Award at the Cowra Regional Art Gallery. In 2014, the survey exhibition, ‘Mysterious Realities; the art of Peter Boggs’ was held at Orange Regional Gallery, NSW. Peter’s work is represented in various collections including Parliament House, Kedumba Drawing Collection, Castlemaine Art Gallery, University of Queensland Art Museum, Newcastle Art Gallery, News Limited, Tattersall’s Club, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and Auckland City Art Gallery (NZ).
