Peter Benjamin Payne Solo Exhibition

Opening night – Wednesday, 7th December, 6 – 9pm

Peter is a Sydney-based artist who developed a strong interest and love of art early in high school, later completing Bachelor of Fine Arts (specialising in drawing and painting) and Masters of Art Administration degrees, both at UNSW, College of Fine Arts, and participating in several group exhibitions around Sydney early on in his career.

Peter has also curated several exhibitions of local artists work both in Seattle, USA (during a two-year working holiday abroad), and in Sydney (including the ‘Kaleidoscope Festival’ Art Exhibition for Wesley Mission in 2006, and the Mardi Gras Festival Art Exhibition in 2007.

Coming through what has evidently been a personally challenging period in recent years, marked by a series of highly traumatic events occurring mainly in 2015, the experience has ultimately led Peter back to exploring a renewed creative spark and passion for art, where the creative process itself has had an almost cathartic effect as a means of self-expression, motivation and healing, finding solace and some enlightenment. The result is ‘Elements’, Peter’s first solo art exhibition (also the realisation finally of a life-long personal ambition).

‘Elements’ represents a journey from pain, fear, grief, and near-death, to self-reflection and re-evaluation, a rediscovery of one’s creative identity and ambition, moving towards (more positive) personal change. The title draws broadly from the various definitions associated with the word ‘elements’ and its meaning when used in different contexts. Most notably, it references the four ‘classic’ elements of the natural world: FIRE, WATER, EARTH and AIR, along with the ‘fifth’ element, ETHER. In early Buddhism, these elements are considered a basis for understanding suffering and for liberating oneself from suffering, a notion that has resonated strongly with Peter when developing these works. He utilises a range of media, including enamel spray paint, acrylics, coloured markers, and liquid paper pens, with some images drawing inspiration from the landscape, recollected memories and moments, people, places and experiences occurring recently and in the past, whilst others have been developed more sub-consciously, whereby the act of painting and drawing becomes almost meditative in its execution.