MIKE PETRE

MIKE PETRE

Stories in the Landscape 21 Sept - 16 Oct 2013

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

milford galleries queenstown

9A Earl Street (03) 442 6896 qtown@milfordgalleries.co.nz

Landscape 141 (2013) oil on canvas, stretcher: 1147 x 1149 x 36 mm

1

Landscape 143 (2013) oil on canvas, stretcher: 1148 x 1149 x 36 mm

2

Landscape 139 (2013) oil on canvas, stretcher: 1301 x 1600 x 37 mm

3

Landscape 142 (2013) oil on canvas, stretcher: 1147 x 1149 x 36 mm

4

Landscape 140 (2013) oil on canvas, stretcher: 1147 x 1149 x 36 mm

5

Landscape 145 (2013) oil on board, frame: 787 x 688 x 40 mm, image: 556 x 451 mm

6

Landscape 147 (2013) oil on board, frame: 623 x 547 x 40 mm, image: 318 x 373 mm

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Landscape 148 (2013) oil on board, frame: 622 x 547 x 40 mm, image: 318 x 373 mm

8

Landscape 144 (2013) oil on board, frame: 788 x 687 x 40 mm, image: 432 x 375 mm

9

Landscape 146 (2013) oil on board, frame: 790 x 689 x 40 mm, image: 453 x 463 mm

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Landscape 149 (2013) oil on board, frame: 622 x 547 x 40 mm, image: 318 x 373 mm

11

Every landscape tells a story of how it is being used and what has happened before.

In Mike Petre’s new body of paintings we witness a considerable development in his work. Acclaimed for the iconic Field Study paintings, he has now significantly broadened his narratives of localised rural experience and introduced a new palette. In Stories in the Landscape Petre goes after the hidden language of the farmed environment and what it is actually saying about role and everyday use.

Petre’s vision of the farmed environment is that of the insider. He does not romanticise nor celebrate but finds an endless suite of still lives. He presents facts – the harsh strips of sprayed verge; the upturned, reused, abandoned fish bin; the mutilated stumps and limbs of macrocarpa trees; the open, denuded (fertilised and sprayed) landscape; fences and buildings marked by rubbings and age – as signifiers, containing the history of an object and its use: that it is there for a reason, even if the only purpose may prove to be abandonment.

In Landscapes 139, 140 and 141 we see intense bright colours on the cut ends of randomly stacked logs. This is wood being weathered or stored for a mill and this colour code distinguishes the different types of wood. When cut into planks that code remains on the end and it functions as the cataloguing system of a normal rural activity.

Petre contrasts the olive bush, the painted elements, the geometry of utilitarian buildings, seemingly random or abandoned objects, hacked branches and remnant stumps, with the endless pursuit and assumptions of architectural order contained in the daily battle on every farm, and in its constantly used landscape.

This new body of work presents the environment intensely and in sharp focus. It is also very painterly, with brush and palette knife worked surfaces, strong outlines and colour overlays or bleeds. The paintings in Stories in the Landscape carry distinct languages and information in a powerfully compelling manner. They represent a major extension to Mike Petre’s narrative concerns and a significant contribution by him to the evolving New Zealand landscape tradition. These paintings examine both what is going on now and how it’s being done, and in this process help us to look, see and recognise.

EXHIBITION PRICELIST

1

Landscape 141 (2013)

9,500

2

Landscape 143 (2013)

9,500

3

Landscape 139 (2013)

14,000

4

Landscape 142 (2013)

9,500

5

Landscape 140 (2013)

9,500

6

Landscape 145 (2013)

4,250

7

Landscape 147 (2013)

3,500

8

Landscape 148 (2013)

3,500

9

Landscape 144 (2013)

3,750

10

Landscape 146 (2013)

4,000

11

Landscape 149 (2013)

3,500

All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition

MIKE PETRE b. 1964, lives Matakana

Field Study 193 (2011)

“My work is a personal response to memory and experiences associated with spending a large part of my life immersed in rural environments. My paintings are not an attempt to elevate, idealise or romanticise the rural, but rather a means of exploring the notion of what it is, and what it means to be a ‘local’, and developing a visual language to convey this. New Zealand has a rich and varied history of landscape painting yet I feel little has been attempted within the visual arts to explore issues of localised rural experience and landscape. Historically New Zealand landscape painting depicts ‘visiting the landscape’ with all its implied transferral of ‘Urban Experience’, - a romanticising experience.” (1) In the ‘field study’ series of works the animals have become the object of intense scrutiny. The background has been removed, “with the object becoming a landscape within themselves.” With gallery installation, the viewer is placed within the landscape and forced into “a degree of scrutiny many would be unfamiliar (if not uncomfortable) with… the reality of raising animals for slaughter and viewing the land for production necessitates objectification. My work is an attempt to capture this objectification, as well as negotiate ‘identity’ within the New Zealand landscape.” (2) The cattle paintings appear deceptively simple. “The images are actually built up through a sequence of processes.” In the ‘Field Study’ series the oil adds “to the dripped and drawn effect of the ink to give a sense of the wetness of living skin, a challenging immediacy. …The factual, unromantic approach to beef farming (the images in the ‘Steer’ series being marked with crayon as for meat-cuts or production lots) brings a confrontational edge to the vision of our landscape as picturesque or pastoral.” (3) "When most of us look at cattle we interpret their returning gaze as gentle curiosity. Petre sees the eye contact as more of a challenge, an awareness of their fate and a "Bring it on" belligerent bravado by animals that inherently know they are born already defeated." (4) Born Piopio, New Zealand 1964. Bachelor of Agriculture (Management), Massey University, Palmerston North, 1986. Bachelor of Design, Carrington Polytechnic, 1994. Raised on a sheep and beef farm in Piopio (King Country). Worked on farms in New Zealand before studying for an agriculture degree and in the UK and Israel afterwards.

Following his graduation from design studies, Petre was a founder member of Sturdee studios and in 1998 of Indicator studios. He began exhibiting via the studios in 1995 and since 1997 has exhibited in dealer galleries in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin. He has been a finalist in the three Wallace Awards he has entered (1998, 1999 & 2001) and in 2001 was featured in episode 4 of TVNZ’s ‘The Big Art Trip’.

1. Artist’s Statement, 2002.

2. ibid.

3. Helen Watson White, ‘Field work’, Sunday Star Times, 16 June 2002.

4. BMW Magazine, Autumn 2008.

Mike Petre 2013 CV P a g e |1

milford galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

MIKE PETRE b. 1964, lives Matakana EDUCATION 1994 1985

Bachelor of Design 3D, Carrington Polytechnic Bachelor of Agriculture (Management), Massey University

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2013 2012 2010 2009 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000

Stories in the Landscape, milford galleries queenstown New Works, milford galleries queenstown New Works, milford galleries queenstown New Works, milford galleries auckland New Works, McPherson Gallery, Auckland New Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin McPherson Gallery, Auckland Mahurangi Gallery, Mahurangi Estate New Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin New Works, McPherson Gallery, Auckland Field Study, Milford Galleries Dunedin McPherson Gallery, Auckland McPherson Gallery, Auckland

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2013

2012

2011

2010 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004

2003 2002 2001

2000 1999

The Wood Show, The Vivian Gallery, Matakana Small Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Review, milford galleries queenstown Significant Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Small Works, milford galleries queenstown The Royal Queenstown Easter Show, milford galleries queenstown The Earl Street Journal, milford galleries queenstown Spring Catalogue, milford galleries queenstown The Review, milford galleries queenstown The Royal Queenstown Easter Show, milford galleries queenstown The Earl Street Journal, milford galleries queenstown The Review, milford galleries queenstown Spring Catalogue, milford galleries queenstown The Mahurangi Group, Matakana The Royal Queenstown Easter Show, milford galleries queenstown Dawson, Petre, Arnold – Recent Works, milford galleries queenstown The Taranaki Gate, Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, Taranaki The Mahurangi Group, Villa Tamahunga, Matakana The Mahurangi Group, Puhoi A & P Show: Art Goes Country, Christchurch Art Gallery The Mahurangi Group, Mahurangi Estate, Warkworth George Perry Gallery, Tauranga Menagerie, North Shore Community Art Centre, North Shore From the River to the Sea, The Mahurangi Group, Puhoi Indicator Studio Group Show, Auckland McPherson Gallery Group Show, Auckland Bowen Gallery Group Show Wallace Art Awards Finalist Touring Exhibition Indicator Studio Group Show McPherson Gallery ‘100 x 100’ Group Show, Auckland Indicator Studio Group Show, Auckland Wallace Art Awards Finalist 100 x 100 Group Show, Drawings Gallery, Auckland Choice, McPherson Gallery, Auckland

Mike Petre 2013 CV P a g e |2

milford galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

1998

100 x 100 Group Show, Drawings Gallery, Auckland Indicator, Studio Group Show Wallace Art Awards Finalist 100 x 100 Group Show, Drawings Gallery, Auckland Sturdee Studio Group Show Sturdee Studio Group Show Sturdee Studio Group Show

1997 1996 1995

AWARDS 2004 Finalist Art Waikato National Art Award 2003 Finalist Art Waikato National Art Award 2002 Finalist Art Waikato National Art Award 2001-2002 Finalist and Touring Show Wallace Art Awards 1998 Finalist Wallace Art Awards 1996 Finalist Wallace Art Awards

COLLECTIONS Wallace Trust Zealandia (Terry Stringer)

BIBLIOGRAPHY 2009 2008 2007

2006 2005 2004

2003 2002

2001 2000

Sunday Star Times, Sunday Magazine, January 2009 NZ Life and Leisure, Issue 19, 2008 BMW Magazine, Feature Article, Autumn 2008 New Zealand Herald, November 2007 New Zealand Herald, September 2007 NZ Lawyer, March, 2006 Otago Daily Times, March, 2006 Otago Daily Times, July 2006 New Zealand Herald, August, 2005 Bay of Plenty Times, November 2004 New Zealand Listener, June, 2004 Home Front, TVNZ, Channel One, July, 2004 Critic, August, 2004 Canvas, July, 2003 Art News NZ, Winter, 2002 The Big Art Trip, TV NZ, Episode 4, screened Sept 2001 TV1, repeated Jan 2002 Otago Daily Times, June, 2002 Sunday Star Times, June, 2002 New Zealand Herald, September, 2001 Sunday Star Times, October, 2000 New Zealand Herald, October, 2000 Metro, June, 2000, pp. 94-99

Field Study 120 (2009)

Mike Petre 2013 CV P a g e |3

milford galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz