Peter Sharp
“I’m not interested in a literal translation but a poetic moment that speaks of things in nature. I am interested in the conversation between Western and Indigenous landscape painting.” (Peter Sharp, 2014)
"It would take quite an effort to dislike Sharp’s pictures, which have an enveloping, holistic quality... Sharp’s use of textures and translucencies is rarely anything but seductive.” (John McDonald, “Modern Dilemmas”, The Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, 27-28 August 2005, p28-29)
“There’s a certain process that I go through: paper works, drawings, the paintings, then the sculpture. It is really important to start from seeing and then put these processes in the way to abstract what I’m seeing, to do something else to it.” (Peter Sharp, “Freestyle”, Artist Profile, Issue 1, Spring 2007, p36)
“I tend to fall in love with a subject, then filter it through different media… My primary media would be drawing, as without that initial interrogation of the landscape I’d be lost! Drawing tends to be less ego-drive, more open…” (Peter Sharp, “Not the Way Home: Desert Paintings from 13 Artists”, Artist Profile, Issue 18, 2012, p56-57)
“Sharp’s paintings, with their fluid lines and deep colours, worked surfaces and biomorphic forms, are abstractions of landscape. Or, more precisely, they are records of Sharp’s reactions to the landscape. Visual interpretations that serve witness to his process.” (Andrew Frost, “Just Enough”, Peter Sharp: Will to Form, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, 2012, p13)
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Sydney in 1964, Sharp completed a Bachelor of Art Education at City Art Institute, Sydney in 1987 before graduating with a Masters of Fine Art at the University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts in 1992. From 1989-1999, Sharp held regular solo exhibitions at Coventry Gallery, Sydney. In 1996, Sharp's work was acquired by Grafton Regional Gallery as part of the Jacaranda Drawing Prize and in the following year was granted a residency at the Cite’ des Arts Internationale, Paris, where he collaborated with French printmakers to make a series of lithographs and etchings. In 1999, he was invited to exhibit at Kunstraum 34 in Stuttgart, Germany. In 2001, Sharp participated in the award winning television documentary Two-Thirds Sky, which culminated in an exhibition of the same title held at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre. His paintings have been exhibited in the Wynne Prize (1996, 2003), the Sulman Prize (1998, 2008) and the Dobell Prize for Drawing (2009, 2010) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 2009, Sharp was invited to be part of the Taronga Zoo Artist-in-Residence program which was featured on the ABC.
In 2011, Artist Profile magazine sponsored a group of 13 artists including Peter Sharp to travel to Fowler's Gap in far western NSW and respond to their surrounding landscape in a body of work. Curated by Owen Craven and in association with Winsor & Newton, Not the Way Home, an exhibition of the artists' work was exhibited at S.H Ervin Gallery, The National Trust, NERAM, and Broken Hill City Art Gallery in 2012.
Sharp has exhibited widely in group exhibitions including: Insight Radical: Where Science Meets Art at Griffin Gallery, London (2013), Personal Space: Contemporary Chinese and Australian Prints, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Sydney (2011), Artist Artists, Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria (2011), Silk and Sand: Chinese and Australian Prints, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, University of New South Wales, Sydney; The Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China (2008) and Contemporaneous: Australian Contemporary Painting 1, Wangaratta Art Gallery, Victoria (2008). Sharp was selected for the Salon des Refuses at the S. H. Ervin Gallery, The National Trust in 2013 and in 2014. In November 2014, Sharp will feature in the inaugural Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial, titled "Drawing Out" at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, curated by Anne Ryan.
In 2012, Sharp held his first survey at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre titled Peter Sharp: Will to Form, curated by Liz Nowell and featured works from over a 15 year period. This survey also culminated in the publication Peter Sharp: Will to Form, a 120 page fully illustrated hardback catalogue, which includes essays by Andrew Frost and Gillian Serisier.
Sharp’s work is held in many significant public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia, The Holmes a Court Collection, Artbank, The Macquarie Group Collection, New England Regional Art Museum, St Vincent's Hospital, Sports & Entertainment LTD and private collections in Australia, United Kingdom and overseas. Peter Sharp lives and works in Sydney, Australia.