Peter Westwood

Peter is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Art

Peter's creative work is focused on ideas of being within unsettled conditions, and the effect of this on our social and individual psyche's. In examining this Peter has worked in various media, however his research and practice is primarily formed through a long-standing preoccupation and interest in painting. 

Peter has held 22 individual exhibitions in Australia, and more recently in Germany.

His creative work has been included in numerous group exhibitions in Australia and overseas and examples of his work from various stages of his career are included in public collections in Australia and New Zealand. 

His most recent exhibitions were held in 2024 at Blockprojects Gallery in Narrm/Melbourne, Verein für Original-Radierung, Munich, and at Boutwell Schabrowsky Gallery in Munich.

In 2022 Peter was invited to be guest Professor for three months at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (HBK) where a survey of his recent work was held in the University Gallery.

Over the past 30 years he has curated many exhibitions in Melbourne, and occasionally overseas, and he has written catalogue essays and the occasional magazine article. He managed RMIT Project Space Gallery for 10 years devising exhibitions involving local and international artists, and established a program of international artist teaching residencies in the School of Art.

Peter is represented by Blockprojects Gallery in Narrm/Melbourne, Australia, and Boutwell Schabrowsky Gallery in Munich, Germany.

Please refer to: https://peterwestwoodartist.com/


RESEARCH:

Peter’s PhD research project is titled 'Painting as a marker of change'.

The research was based in examinations of the capacities of the idiom of painting to reflect instability in a world of perpetual change. Peter's creative works and writing examine and reflect on the capacity of contemporary art, but particularly painting, to provide social and cultural agency via processes of interpreting and revealing a complex and fluid contemporaneity.

Peter investigates both agency and passivity within the act of producing and of viewing art, to examine how living within unsettled conditions may affect collective and individual psyches.

RECENT AWARDS AND GRANTS:

2022  Artist residency: Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (HBK), Braunschweig, Germany
2016   Major prize award: 2016 Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize
2014   Artist residency: LIA - The Leipzig International Art Program, Germany
2012   Project Grant: City of Melbourne
2010   Artist residency: East China Normal University, Shanghai, PR China
2002  Curatorial residency: Crossing: New Art from Australia, an exhibition of contemporary Australian art, UIAH, Helsinki University Finland.


INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS (Full List): 

2024  The new way to live, Blockprojects Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
2022  What happened during the off season, Boutwell Schabrowsky Gallery, Munich, Germany
           Caught by surprise, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (HBK) Gallery, Braunschweig, Germany
2021   Painting as a marker of change, RMIT SITE EIGHT Gallery, School of Art, RMIT University Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
2019   What is the Story for Tomorrow? Boutwell Schabrowsky Gallery, Munich, Germany
2017   Afterall, NKN Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
2015   The Poor Hospital (passage and fate), Blockprojects Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
2013   Drive, Blindside ARI, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
           Staring back at the world, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Eora/Sydney, Australia
2011    Look out, Jenny Port Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
2010   Dieback, Jenny Port Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
2009  48 Portraits, Jenny Port Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
2006  Hard Times, The Doll’s House, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
2004  Shape, Crossley and Scott Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
           Differences, Crossley and Scott Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
1996   Things that have happened, Temple Studio, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
1995   Fruit of the forest, School of Art, Monash University, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
1992   Procession, Powell Street Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
1990   Untitled (Paintings), Powell Street Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
1989   Assemblages, Reconnaissance Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
1988   Paintings, Reconnaissance Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
1986   Drawings, Reconnaissance Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia

RECENT COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS:

2024 What we feel and what we know, Verein für Original-Radierung, Munich, Germany. Two-person exhibition: Julia Powles and Peter Westwood. This was also accompanied by a satellite project at Boutwell Schabrowsky Gallery, Munich, Germany.


SELECTED RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

2023 Unbecoming, Jacob Hoerner Galleries, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Curated by David Palliser and Julia Powles

2022 All you need is love, Shau Fenster, Berlin, Germany. Curated by Berthe Bosse and Thomas Rentmeister.

2021 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (finalist), Geelong Art Gallery, Geelong, Australia

2020 How Soon is Now, Blockprojects Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia

2020. The new ab/normal, RMIT Gallery, RMIT University, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia Curated by Dr Tammy Hulbert & Helen Rayment

2019 Spring 1883 Art Fair, Blockprojects Gallery, Eora/Sydney, Australia

2018 Spring 1883 Art Fair, Blockprojects, Melbourne
         Group show, Susan Boutwell Gallery, Munich, Germany

2017 B-Side, Blindside ARI, Melbourne

2016 Painting, More Painting, The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
         Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery
         Bayside Acquisitive Art Award, Bayside Arts and Cultural Centre, Melbourne 2015

2015 The Door in the Wall, Blindside ARI, Melbourne

2014 Head: Incidents Above a Bar (part 4), curated by Louise Paramour and Lisa Young, The Alderman, Melbourne;
         Asteroid, WinterSpinnerei 2014, Leipzig International Artist in Residence Program (LIA)', Spinnerei Arts Complex, Leipzig, Germany


REPRESENTATION IN PERMANENT PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:

Art Bank, Eora/Sydney, Australia.
Art Gallery of Ballarat, Ballaarat/Ballarat. Painting Collection and the Prints and Drawing Collection, Australia
Auckland Art Gallery/Toi O Tamaki, Auckland, New Zealand.
Bayside City Council Art & Heritage Collection, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.
Geelong Art Gallery, Djilang/Geelong, Australia.
National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Works included in the Painting Collection (Shell Collection and the Michelle Endowment Collection) and the Prints and Drawing Collection.
RMIT University, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.
Victoria University, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.
Wollongong City Gallery, Woolyungah/Wollongong, Australia.


BIBLIOGRAPHY (RECENT):

Harding, L., (2022) All of this is true, most of it happened. Some thoughts on Peter Westwood’s Caught by Surprise, catalogue essay, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (HBK) Gallery, Braunschweig, Germany. (Harding is Artistic Director, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia).

Vogel, E., (2019) Kultur Art Review, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, Bavaria, Germany; July 18, p R17.

Cox, S., and Powles, J., (2019) What is the Story for Tomorrow?, catalogue essay, Boutwell Schabrowsky Gallery, Munich, Germany.

Cox, S., (2017), Afterall, catalogue essay, NKN Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.

Delany, M., (2016), Painting, More Painting, The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Contributing writers: Jan Bryant, Hannah Matthews, Justin Paton, Quentin Sprague.

Powles, J., (2015) The Poor Hospital (passage and fate), NKN Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia 2015. Accompanying poem Heel by Paul Carter, 2015

Cox, S., (2013) The Waiting Places, Catalogue essay accompanying the exhibition Staring back at the world, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Eora/Sydney, Australia.

Powles, J., (2010) An order of sorts, Online essay accompanying the exhibition Dieback, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.

Song, K. and Qui, M., (2010) Distinction, Shanghai University Academy of Fine Arts. Shanghai, PR China.


RECENT WRITING:

Westwood, P. (2023) We each speak differently (Spanish translation), 'El Flasherito' Contemporary Art Magazine, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Westwood, P. (2022) When we slow down …. Catalogue essay accompanying the work of Charlotte Acklin, Boutwell Shabrowsky, Munich, Germany.

Westwood, P. (2021) Spaces of wordless immediacy. Catalogue essay accompanying the work of Jordan Grant, Blockprojects Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

Westwood, P. (2021) The space of translation. Catalogue essay accompanying the work of Jonah Gebka, Boutwell Schabrowsky, Munich, Germany.

Westwood, P., (2019) Sightings within the whole shebang. Catalogue essay accompanying the work of Jarryd Cooper, Blockprojects Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

Westwood, P., (2018) Wonderlust, curatorial project and catalogue essay, BUS Projects, Melbourne, Australia. Artists include: Georgia Biggs, David Palliser, Julia Powles, Isabel Turner.

Westwood, P. (2017) The colour, the shape, NKN Gallery, Melbourne, Australia. Curatorial project involving the work of Georgia Biggs, David Harley, Melinda Harper, Michael Jaeger, Julia Powles, Antonia Sellbach and Isabel Turner. Exhibition text by Steve Cox.

Westwood, P., (2016) Bus Stop, (extended version) essay published in Michael Wegerer – Bouncing Borders (monograph) University of Applied Arts Vienna Press, Birkhäuser Verlag, Vienna / Berlin.

Westwood, P., (2016) Our ideal world, catalogue essay accompanying the work of Jordan Grant, (ed) Eric Nash, curator, Townsville Regional Gallery, Townsville, Australia.


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