Dr Peter Alwast
Areas of expertise
- Fine Arts (Incl. Sculpture And Painting) 190502
- Lens Based Practice 190503
- Art Theory 190103
- Art History 190102
- Aesthetics 220301
- Poststructuralism 220317
Research interests
Theoretical research includes contemporary aesthetic debates, post-structuralism, new materialism, formalism and the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Ranciere and Bernard Stiegler.
Studio research is based on relations and discordances between paintings, prints and video works that critique and expose neo-liberal institutions, social fragmentation and precarious constructions of community.
Biography
Peter Alwast has held over 18 solo exhibitions and has been shown in group exhibitions at the Tate Modern (London), Museum of Old and New Art (Tasmania), the Greater Taipei Biennial, the Australian Centre for Photography (Sydney), GOMA - Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, among others. His work is held in public and private collections in Australia and the United States. Alwast's practice employs a range of media including painting, video, computer graphics and drawing. In 1999, Alwast was awarded a Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship and since completing his Masters in Fine Art degree from the Parsons School of Design, New School University, New York in 2001, he has exhibited nationally and internationally. In 2013 Alwast undertook a residency and solo exhibition at Videotage in Hong Kong . In 2011 he created a solo exhibition Future Perfect at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane and his work was seen in the group exhibition Experimenta Utopia Now travelling to MONA, Tasmania as well as Selectively Revealed at the Aram Art Gallery, Seoul, South Korea. In 2010 Alwast's video animation work 'Everything' received an honourable mention in Update III, at the Liedts Meesen foundation in Ghent, Belgium. His drawing work ‘Trees, Waterfall, Back’ won the Jacaranda drawing award in Grafton Regional Gallery. In 2008 he was the inaugural recipient of The New Media Art Award, hosted by The Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia.
Researcher's projects
Solo Exhibitions
2022 'Recent Work', Gallery9, Sydney
2018 'Making Sense', Gallery9, Sydney
2016 'Here and There' The Garage, Canberra
2015 '1,2,3' Gallery9, Sydney, 'Being Together' The Block, QUT, Brisbane, 'Video Works' Screen Space, Melbourne
2014 'The Origins of Humanity', Boxcopy, Brisbane
2013 'Looking Down', Videotage, Hong Kong, 'Frozen In The Tracks', Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane, Duets, Gallery9, Sydney
2012 'Translations', Grafton Regional Gallery
2011 'Future Perfect', Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, New Work, Ryan Renshaw, Brisbane, Drawings, Gallery9, Sydney
2008 'The Landing', Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney
2007 'Places That Don’t Exist', George Petelin Gallery, Gold Coast, 'Now That The Neighbours Can Dance', Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney
2006 'The Night Sky', MSSR, Brisbane
2005 'Somewhere In The South Pacific', Blindside, Melbourne, 'Delivery', Metro Arts, Brisbane
2003 'Working Like A Tiger', The Farm Space, Brisbane
Group Exhibitions
2021 'One or Two', ANCA Gallery, Canberra
2020 'Mosman Art Prize' finalist, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
2019 'Unfinished Business', Canberra Contemporary Art Space
2018 'Painting Amongst Other Things' Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra.
2017 'Red,Green Blue', A History of Australian Video Art, Griffith University, Brisbane
2016 'Greater Taipei Biennale', NTUA Art Musuem, Taipei, Fishers Ghost Exhibition, Campbelltown Arts Centre.
2015 A Time and a Place, Landscapes from the Griffith University Art Collection, Albany Art Prize, WA.
2014 'Art Stage Singapore', Singapore Art Fair, Always Foever Now- Timelessness and The Currency of New Media Art, Das Weisse Haus, Vienna, Austria.
2013 'The Wandering', Museum of Contemporary Art Touring Exhibition, Fishers Ghost Art Award, Campbeltown Arts Center, Albany Art Prize, Albany Town Hall, WA, Works on Paper, Hazelhurst Regional Art Gallery
2012 'Selectively Revealed' National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts,Taipei, Selectively Revealed Chulalongkorn University Art Spapce,Bangkok, Thailan.
2011 'Selectively Revealed', Aram Art Gallery, Seoul, South Korea, Group Show, Gallery9, Sydney, Experimenta Biennale of Media Art- Utopia Now, Melbourne Arts Centre, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Experimenta Utopia Now, Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania
2010 'Update III',Liedts-Meesen Foundation, Ghent, Belgium, 'No Soul For Sale', Tate Modern, United Kingdom, 'Dream Home', Australian Center for Photography, Sydney, 'Move on Asia', Para-Site, Hong Kong, 'Move on Asia', Loop Gallery, Seoul, South Korea, 'Experimenta', Utopia Now, The Arts Center, Melbourne
2009 'Souviners from Earth', Video Art Tv Channel, Germany and France online: http://www.souvenirsfromearth.tv Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle Art Gallery, Fremantle Temperature Two, New Art From Queensland, Museum of Brisbane, Australia, No Identifiable Culture Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown, NSW 'I Have Not Been Myself Lately', QCA Gallery, Griffith University, Brisbane
2008 'The Premier of Queensland New Media Award', Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane 'Tidal', Davonport Regional Gallery, Tasmania, 'Video Ground', (Touring) -Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, Bangkok, Thailand, University of Chicago, Chicago, 'Gifted' - New to the Griffith University Collection, Dell Gallery, Brisbane, Wilson HTM Art Prize (Touring), Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne, Grantpirrie, Sydney, Jan Manton Art, Brisbane
Current student projects
Shanti Duyen Shea-An (PhD candidate) 'Reading/Painting: A Practice-led Inquiry into Textuality, Legibility, and Translation in Contemporary Painting'
Alex Kennedy (PhD candidate) 'Expanded Spaces of Flatness'
Kris Peta Deray (PhD candidate) ‘Generating Affect: on materiality, representation and sensory means'
Timothy Phillips (PhD candidate) 'Symbolic language in gay figurative painting'
Past student projects
Phil Page 'The Form and Content of European Cities as Paintings' 2018, PhD.
Bryan Spier 'Narratives of Shape and Colour' 2016, PhD.
Publications
- Alwast, P 2020, 'Contemporary Positions on Aesthetics and Politics beyond Identity and Representation', ICCT NYU Winter Institute 2020, New York University, New York, United States of America, p. 36.
- Geczy, A 2014, Science fiction and the antimony of images: Peter Alwast, Eyeline Contemporary Visual Art Magazine, Vol 80
- Kubler, A 2013, Virtual Materiality, Australian Art Collector, Issue 64, April-June 2013
- Lam, L 2013, A Sideways Look At Our Vertical City, South China Morning Post, Sunday December
- Stevens, G 2011, Future Perfect Catalogue, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
- Penning, M 2006, Peter Alwast and The Aesthetics of Disinclination, Eyeline Contemporary Visual Arts Magazine, Number 59
- Evans, N 2008, Everything as a Meta-Picture in Motion, Catalogue for New Media Award, GOMA, Brisbane.