Art critic Sasha Grishin writes about the work of John Peart in his review of Material Nature, an exhibition curated by Dr Anne-Marie Jean currently on display at the University Drill Hall Gallery until August 10, 2025.
Excerpt below:
Although there is little that unites these artists and any of a score of other artists could have taken their place, the overall calibre of the work is high and there are constant visual surprises as you move around the exhibition.
The work of the late John Peart grows in stature with time. A painting such as his Shadowgrille, 2009, possesses a wonderful spatial ambiguity where air seems to circulate among the abstracted shapes with forms breathed onto the canvas suggesting their own space and magic despite the monochromatic restrictions.
About Material Nature:
Material Nature looks to the power of materials to engage our multi-sensory experience of the natural world. With a focus on embodied awareness, the conventional idiom of landscape painting is collapsed, the viewer no longer positioned outside nature, but within. Works by artists Ros Auld, Manini Gumana, Jahnne Pasco-White, John Peart, Ana Pollak, Annika Romeyn, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn and Garawan Wanambi invite contemplation of our inter-relations with ecologies.
Read more here:
Drill Hall Gallery uncovers material nature of our natural environment in new exhibition
