Design and Art Australia Online

Peter Graham was born in 1970 in Sydney, Australia. His oeuvre includes paintings, drawings, mixed media works and sculptures. Graham first expressed an interest in art at the age of four, and was later inspired to become an artist after seeing reproductions of Rembrandt’s drawings, especially his self-portraits. Both his father, an illustrator for children’s books, and his mother, an artist, encouraged their son’s artistic aspirations. By the time he was a teenager Graham was living in the Dandenongs, north of Melbourne where he developed a strong affinity for the bush. It was at this stage that he created many works on paper that later formed part of his first collection at the ACCA (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art), Melbourne (Victoria).

At the age of sixteen Graham left high school to complete his secondary education at the geographically convenient Box Hill TAFE (1986-1989), Victoria. Here he began producing many drawings and fragmentary, notational works on paper. It was during that time that Graham discovered the work of Joseph Beuys, whose work has left a lasting impression on him. Graham enrolled in a Bachelor of Fine Art in painting at Victoria College of Arts, (1990-1992), Prahran, Victoria. He believed this was the best college for him as the lecturers were open to artistic experimentation. Consequently, Graham began experimenting with works on paper, making photography with a homemade camera and handmade prints. It was a productive time for him: Graham used the word “hermetised” to describe his lifestyle. He prefers not to confine himself to “any one medium or any one method of articulating ideas” (Graham, 2000). The artist has explained his working method for drawings as being “created in response to the tactile effect of the paper itself or the scratch of the pen on the surface” (Graham, 2000). Graham appreciates the less defined or less deliberate marks within works.

By 1990, at only twenty years of age, Graham had put together a large amount of drawings and sculptures into two pictorial narratives shown at the ACCA, Melbourne. Ranging from a bronze head of an astronaut to a wood-cut print of a rose on paper, Graham’s explorations of form, line and space are used to tell stories. He feverishly captures obscure and eccentric subjects on copious scraps of paper. Graham’s work depicts his understanding of reality. He believes art is a kind of “magic” because the pictures he imagines are turned into artworks for others to see (Graham, 2000). Over time he believes he has developed the skill to determine when a work is completed. He has learnt to separate himself from the work and let it “speak” back to him, a process he finds very interesting (Graham, 2000). For Graham, the artist must address his task with a sense of awe, wonder, and constant questioning.

Since 1990 Graham has had solo exhibitions in Kaliman Gallery in Sydney, Tolarno Galleries and ACCA in Melbourne. He has also participated in group exhibitions throughout Australia. Graham’s work is represented in public collections including the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (Victoria), Newcastle Regional Gallery (NSW), and Monash University (Melbourne).

Writers:

Shulman, Gabrielle
De Lorenzo, Catherine

Date written:

2010

Last updated:

2011