MIKE PETRE

MIKE PETRE NEW WORKS

2 - 27 October, 2010 UPSTAIRS GALLERY

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

milford galleries queenstown 9A Earl Street

(03) 442 6896

qtown@milfordgalleries.co.nz

1. MIKE PETRE, Field Study 144 (2010) ink, graphite, oil & ac

crylic on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 1680 x 2800 x 35 mm

2. MIKE PETRE, Field Study 153 (2010) ink, graphite, oil & acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

2. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 153 (2010) ink, graphite, oil & acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

3. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 154 (2010) ink, graphite, oil & acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

4. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 155 (2010) ink, graphite, oil & acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

5. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 156 (2010) ink, graphite, oil & acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

6. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 158 (2010) ink, graphite, oil & acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

7. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 159 (2010) ink, graphite, oil & acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

8. MIKE PETRE, Field Study 148 (2010), oil on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

8. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 148 (2010)

oil on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

9. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 147 (2010)

oil on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

10. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 149 (2010)

oil on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

11. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 150 (2010)

oil on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

12. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 152 (2010)

oil on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

13. DETAIL VIEW MIKE PETRE, Field Study 151 (2010)

oil on paper, frame (v x h x d): 588 x 518 x 20 mm

Repeated bovine forms drip down the canvas or emerge from grass-green impasto backgrounds in Mike Petre’s exhibition of new works. From the extremely large stretched canvas to the small framed works on paper, Mike Petre brings cattle into the spotlight.

The very accurate anatomically correct proportions and the huge size of ‘Field Study 114’ makes it is easy to believe one is in the midst of a herd of these large confronting beasts. It is clear Petre knows these animals inside and out.

The black and white mixed media on paper works have expressive and deceivingly simple ink and paint application. With a single brush stroke Petre produces light and shadow, form and shape - torsos and heads float in space. He manages to simultaneously allude to rain drenched cattle on a stormy day and hanging carcasses in a butchery.

Thick impasto oil paint is applied to paper in Field Studies 147 – 152. In these works the animals start to merge into the landscape: Petre’s cattle are truly an integral part of the rural environment.

Standing in the gallery surrounded by these inquisitive looking beasts one gets a strong sense that the more you look the more interest the subject matter has in looking back.

This is the artist’s unusual, deliberate and confident accomplishment.

EXHIBITION PRICELIST

1

Field Study 144 (2010)

17,500

2

Field Study 153 (2010)

1,750

3

Field Study 154 (2010)

1,750

4

Field Study 155 (2010)

1,750

5

Field Study 156 (2010)

1,750

6

Field Study 158 (2010)

1,750

7

Field Study 159 (2010)

1,750

8

Field Study 148 (2010)

1,750

9

Field Study 147 (2010)

1,750

10

Field Study 149 (2010)

1,750

11

Field Study 150 (2010)

1,750

12

Field Study 152 (2010)

1,750

13

Field Study 151 (2010)

1,750

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

MIKE PETRE b. 1964, lives Matakana

Field Study 113 (2009)

“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 pastorale.” 3 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

Mike Petre 2010 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 2010 2009 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000

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 20102008 2007 2006 2005 2004

2003 2002 2001

2000 1999

1998

1997 1996 1995

The Mahurangi Group, Matakana The Royal Queenstown Easter Show, 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 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

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 Mike Petre 2010 CV P a g e |2

milford galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

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 122 (2009)

Mike Petre 2010 CV P a g e |3

milford galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz