Pete Wheeler
Pete Wheeler (born Geraldine, New Zealand, 1978) is an artist, currently living and working in Berlin, Germany.
Wheeler lived in Dunedin during the late 1990s and early 2000s, graduating with a BFA from the Otago Polytechnic's School of Fine Art in 2000. Since graduating he has held 16 solo shows in New Zealand, Australia, America and Europe.
Art
Wheeler's paintings forcefully display social responsibility in relation to political situations. Often using controversial and confrontational images, his work is both powerful and relevant. His images are both playful and aggressive, frequently using images taken from political propaganda and mass media as a basis for the venting of his frustration at the public acceptance of these manipulative political and marketing images at face value. At the same time he argues that the representation of an image is no other than marks on a surface. [citation needed]
Death, time and the shadow of history are recurring themes in Wheeler's art.[1] The artist habitually strips these to their bare essentials, often adding words or simple slogans, so as to both capture and mock their essence.
Wheeler's paintings have always displayed an introspection, and a sense of social responsibility in relation to political situations. Many of the more controversial and confrontational images used derive from the rise of Nazi Germany and recent Islamic fundamentalism. These works express a deliberate social conscience with an internationalist perception.
Exhibitions
Solo Shows
- 2000 Emerging Artist 2000, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch, New Zealand
- 2001 Ill Strokes, High Street Project, Christchurch, New Zealand
- 2002 Disarticulated 2, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch, New Zealand
- 2003 The Words of Wisdom are Heard in Quite, Timaru Public Art Gallery, Timaru, New Zealand, and Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand
- 2004 We will Shine Like Stars in the Summer Night, The Arthouse, Christchurch, New Zealand
- 2004 I Went Looking for One Good Man, Whitespace, Auckland, New Zealand
- 2004 Night of the Long Knives, Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand
- 2005 Citizen Artist, The Arthouse Christchurch, New Zealand
- 2005 Vitamin P, Mark Wolley Gallery, Portland, United States
- 2006 Don't Believe the Hype,[2] Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand
- 2006 Home Before Dark, Whitespace, Auckland, New Zealand
- 2007 History Will be Kind to Me,[3] Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand
- 2007 Losing the War on Images, Whitespace, Auckland, New Zealand
- 2007 Run Like Hell, Kolektiv Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Wheeler's next exhibition will be as part of the three-man show "Gallery Mittwoch" at Kolektiv Berlin in April 2008
Art fairs
References
- ^ The galleries: Intense leaps showcase further potential NZ Herald "he work is filled by a skull that suggests mortality, and the background comprises runs of paint to suggest tears and the passage of time. The skull is decorated in a variety of colours which are memories added to the past."
- ^ "Don't Believe The Hype". Brooke Gifford Gallery. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
- ^ "History Will be Kind to Me". Brooke Gifford Gallery. Retrieved 17 March 2015.