Peter James Smith Exhibitions

Peter James Smith

Nine Key Works 2002 - 2008 & Selected Sublime Echo Studies

15 May - 9 Jun 2010

Exhibition Works

The Measure of Aoraki
The Measure of Aoraki (2006)
Paradise Lost VII
Paradise Lost VII (2008)
The Universe Hanging by a Golden Thread From the Floor of Heaven
The Universe Hanging by a Golden Thread From the Floor of Heaven (2008)
The Passage of History
The Passage of History (2007)
Dumont D'Urville At French Pass, 28 January 1827
Dumont D'Urville At French Pass, 28 January 1827 (2002)
The Text Fails as the Cultural Fabric Fades
The Text Fails as the Cultural Fabric Fades (2005)
Brandish Your Crystal Tresses in the Sky
Brandish Your Crystal Tresses in the Sky (2008)
Landfall
Landfall (2008)
Notes From Farewell Spit
Notes From Farewell Spit (2008)
The Sublime Echo - Study IV (The Wetjacket Arm, Dusky Bay)
The Sublime Echo - Study IV (The Wetjacket Arm, Dusky Bay) (2008)
The Sublime Echo - Study XVIII (The Gates of Haast)
The Sublime Echo - Study XVIII (The Gates of Haast) (2008)
The Sublime Echo - Study XXX (Piopiotahi)
The Sublime Echo - Study XXX (Piopiotahi) (2008)

Exhibition Text

Melbourne based Peter James Smith is Head of Art at the prestigious RMIT Art School, a world acknowledged authority on statistical mathematics, and one of a select group of New Zealand artists exhibiting in NZ and Australia regularly. In 2009, a major mid-career survey show was held at the Gippsland Art Gallery, Victoria.

As revealed in the title, Nine Key Works 2002-08, this exhibition serves to highlight very significant works, and that Peter James Smith has charted a direction no other New Zealand artist has. His combination of pictorial representation and abstract space, along with other devices (such as handwritten text, cinematic borders) and the manner in which he unifies (a history of) intellectual and physical endeavour with visual experience, the specifics of place and the essences of moments (or events) come to forge the unmistakeable duality at the heart of his unique, memorable work.
Smith overlays a written narrative upon the landscape, making no attempt to deliver something finite – he is constructing a (partial) window to that landscape, event and knowledge. He deliberately leaves space for the viewer to enquire and participate and in this way expects that the viewer can and will, or could and should, enter the dialogues and experience the work in multiple and various ways. For some, it will be the romantic beauty of the sublime landscape that entices; for others, the intellectual endeavour and human spirit of enquiry that spurs and animates.

He uses history, literature, scientific enquiry, the significant journeys of navigators (whether travelling the oceans or entering the world of the cosmos) and collapses time into moments of awe. Collectively his work states that the enquiries of art, mathematics, science, philosophy and the exploits of great human endeavour are in essence united, not at all separate and so share the same objectives.

exhibition catalogue