Peter James Smith
We know artists...
With a range of works from many of New Zealand's most impressive, emerging and established artists, we are privileged to be able to bring you the best contemporary art New Zealand has to offer. Click on an artist's name to see examples of their work.
Looking for an artist?
Click and select artist.
Born in 1954 in Northland, Peter James Smith graduated Bachelorof Science (Hons) from Auckland University, before going on to complete his Masters of Science at Rutger's University and a PhD at the University of Western Australia in 1984. He currently heads theSchool of Creative Media at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where he is also a Professor of Mathematics and Art.
Smith's dualistic passion for the scientific and the artistic manifests itself in his painting, which underscores the language of the visual with a handwritten, blackboard scrawl of scientific and mathematical text.
His inclusion of these scientific explanatory notes of the phenomena of the painted subject, whether abstract or figurative,hints at Smith's underlying implication that the world as we knowit has an ultimately logical explanation.
Smith has held numerous solo shows in both New Zealand and Australia, and his work is held in private collections throughout New Zealand and internationally.