Held in the Gaze of a Stranger
The title of the 2024 exhibition of my paintings at Australian Galleries, Melbourne is Held in the Gaze of a Stranger. It is a reminder to me that the work of art, is not only being looked at, but is also looking back at us, with a steady gaze.
Because our lives are being directed more and more, and largely without consent, via ‘thinking’ devices in every household, the paintings worth painting in this moment of history are, for me, to be found among the ones that are handmade, start to finish, by one person, acting alone.
However, in passing, a quiet thank you to the canvas-maker, the stretcher-maker, the paint-maker, the gallery, owner and staff, and all the authors of all the books I’ve read, and their publishers and staff and all involved in the distribution of those books, and the café staff that made and served up the coffees while I read those books. Oh, and to all the friends and kith and kin with whom I discuss all and everything, and who I learn from every single day.
Come to think of it, just to get here to see this exhibition, perhaps we should extend our thanks to the road-makers, the car-mechanics, the street sweepers, and streetlight globe-changers and a thousand others including the engineers and workers who checked the safety of the bridge we crossed over just to make it here in one piece. So, on second thoughts, perhaps we do not act “as one, working alone”.
As the American poet Robert Frost wrote in the finishing lines of his poem The Tuft of Flowers , ’Men work together, I told him from the heart, / Whether they work together or apart.”
Being the individual I-am-becoming these paintings are for me in this moment of history, worth painting.
Finally, some further thoughts related to the discontinuous, disjunctive compositional structure of my paintings, which it seems is as old as old
From The Penguin Book of Haiku
Translated and edited by Adam L. Kern
Pub. Penguin Random House UK 2018
According to traditionalist accounts haiku has two major requirements . . . The first, though broadly undervalued requirement, is the ‘cutting word’ (kireji) or ‘cut’ (kire), a device that brings about a strong dramatic pause in the meaning of a verse as well as its rhythm. The cut overcomes brevity by rending the verse into two superficially unrelated portions, beckoning the reader to step in and, through a strategy of intuition or inspiration or allusional detective work, if not cold logic, search for some underlying connection. The cut, it might be said, splices as well as dices. It establishes twin cathodes that the reader must bring [together]… generating an imaginative spark. A technique of disjunction, says Richard Gilbert, the cut triggers a cognitive shift. ... This disjunctive logic of the cut, by creating negative space (ma) enjoining reader involvement, is the logic of linked verse and of the wit in witty linked verse.
Peter Neilson, 2024
Left: Golden summer haze (Sylvan waters and beyond) 2022 oil on linen 146 x 50 cm
Right: The deep 2022 oil on linen 143 x 43 cm
Held in Gaze of a Stranger (work in progress) 2024oil on linen 92 x 190 cm
Standing in the doorway 2023 oil on linen 92 x 190 cm
Political Theatre: The Way (and wolves are watching) 2024 oil on linen 92 x 190 cm
Angels arriving at the top of the hill to kindly assist me home 2024 oil on linen 56 x 296 cm
Plan X. The intolerable present 2023
on linen
x
cm
Australia (always was always will be) 2020 oil on linen 60 x 283 cm
Chiasmus. Red Zone (access denied)
Green Light (deleted) 2022
oil on linen 100 x 185 cm
Becoming lighter than air 2022 oil on linen 100 x 185 cm
The night they crossed the border. Having to leave.
Having to return. 2021 oil on linen 150 x 300 cm
Painting the two-timing, two-way mirror (as news arrives from Pandemonium) 2021 oil on linen 100 x 185 cm
Double double-cross 2021 oil on linen 100 x 185 cm
Born 1944 Melbourne, Australia
1961-1964 Diploma of Fine Art (Painting), RMIT, Melbourne
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 ‘Held in the Gaze of a Stranger’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2023 ‘Drawing on what has already been suggested’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2022 ‘History Painting. Looking back to now.’, Australian Galleries, Sydney
2020 ‘Agitation in Swingtime’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2019 ‘Staring into the middle distance’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2018 ‘Pretty Delicate’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2017 ‘Relics from an Inquisition: The Hollywood Ten… plus’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2016 ‘Toys’, Australian Galleries, Sydney
2015 ‘Paintings’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street Melbourne
2014 ‘Drawings: Bark’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne
2013 ‘…plus stances, shadows and portraits’, Australian Galleries, Roylston Street, Sydney
2012 ‘In a minor key’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne ‘Singing in the kitchen’, Australian Galleries, Glenmore Road, Sydney
2011 ‘New Works’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne
2010 ‘Interludes’, Australian Galleries, Smith Street, Melbourne
2009 ‘Shifting Borders: Lines in the Sand’, Australian Galleries, Sydney ‘Australien Phantasie’, Galerie Seywald, Salzburg, Austria
2008 ‘Myths, Fairytales and Legends: all our memories in a ditch so deep’, Melbourne Art Fair, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2007 ‘Constellations’, Australian Galleries, Sydney
2006 ‘Reading between the lines: Small works’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne ‘One step ahead’, Australian Galleries at Depot Gallery, Sydney
2005 ‘Drifting South, always South’, Australian Galleries, Sydney
2004 ‘Out and about in the dark morning streets’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2003 ‘All night long’, Australian Galleries, Sydney
2002 ‘Through the arcades, looking for trouble’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1999 ‘Last but one’, Pinacotheca Gallery, Melbourne
1996 ‘Peter Neilson Paintings’, Diane Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne
1992 ‘Peter Neilson Drawings’, Delbridge Street Gallery, Melbourne
1991 ‘Peter Neilson Drawings’, Delbridge Street Gallery, Melbourne
1990 ‘Peter Neilson Drawings’, Delbridge Street Gallery, Melbourne
1987 ‘Peter Neilson Drawings’, Gryphon Gallery, Melbourne
1967 ‘Peter Neilson Dickie Paintings’, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 ‘papermade’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2014 ‘one of each’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne
2013 ‘Australian Galleries exhibition’, Manning Regional Art Gallery, Taree, NSW
2012-13
‘Australian Galleries at Gallows Gallery’, Gallows Gallery, Perth
‘Summer Stock Show’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne
2011 ‘large exhibition of small works’, Australian Galleries, Roylston Street, Sydney
‘large exhibition of small works’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne
‘Summer Exhibition’, Australian Galleries, Roylston Street, Sydney
2010 ‘Summer stock show’, Australian Galleries, Smith Street, Melbourne
‘Narrative Realism: A world observed’, Australian Galleries, Roylston Street, Sydney
Blake Prize finalist and exhibitor in its Australia-wide touring exhibition
2009-10
‘Summer Show’, Australian Galleries, Roylston Street, Sydney
‘Summer Stock Show’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne
2009 ‘A sculpture by…’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2007 ‘Summer Stock Show’, Australian Galleries Works on Paper, Sydney
‘ Small Pleasures’, Australian Galleries Painting & Sculpture, Melbourne
‘Stock Show’ Australian Galleries Painting & Sculpture, Melbourne
2006 ‘Summery’, Australian Galleries Painting & Sculpture, Sydney
‘New Year group exhibition’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
‘Stock Show’, Australian Galleries Painting & Sculpture, Melbourne
‘50th Anniversary Exhibition’, 5th June, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2005 ‘End of Year Group Exhibition’, Australian Galleries Painting and Sculpture, Sydney
‘Australian Contemporary Art’, De Récourt Art in association with Australian Galleries at The Gallery in Cork Street, London
‘Small Important Works’, Australian Galleries, Sydney
2003 ‘New work’, Australian Galleries, Sydney
2002 ‘2002 Opening Exhibition’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1997 ‘Urban’, curated by David Ryan, RMIT Arts Project Space, Melbourne
COMMISSIONS
2010-11 Portrait of Sir Rod Carnegie for Trinity College, Melbourne University
COLLECTIONS
Melbourne City Council, Trinity College
