- Peter Stichbury
Peter Stichbury, born Auckland 1969, is a
New Zealand artist .Stichbury graduated from the Elam School of Fine Arts,
University of Auckland in 1997. He won New Zealand’s prestigiousWallace Art Awards the same year. Stichbury is primarily a painter but his body of work also spans the mediums of drawing, watercolour, sculpture and sound based work.Stichbury is most renowned for his intricate yet flat portraits of models and modern beauties sourced from contemporary media images, which he reworks to create abhorrently exquisite doe eyed specimens both startlingly attractive and awkwardly
ugly . His work also explores those who don't measure up to conventionalbeauty ideals and who are therefore rendered socially invisible: misfits, outsiders and intellectuals. He draws partly from haute couture catwalk culture, modern psychology andsociology , alien conspiracy theory, and a pared down 1950's aesthetic to make a painterly comment on the dilemma of beauty and society's obsession with appearance. Stichbury subverts traditional conventions ofportraiture , often painting a generalised stereotype of a societal group, as opposed to the specific character study a portrait painter seeks to achieve. His work is simultaneously intertwined with and influenced by popular culture and historical painters includingJean Auguste Dominique Ingres andLucien Freud .English model
Lily Donaldson is a favourite subject.He is represented in New Zealand by Starkwhite.
External links
* [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/search.aspx?advanced=colProProductionMakers%3a%22Stichbury%2c+Peter%22+colCollectionGroup%3aCH Work in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa]
* [http://www.starkwhite.co.nz/section27.html Peter Stichbury at Starkwhite Gallery, New Zealand]
* [http://www.artspace.org.nz/exhibitions/2000/measureofstrangeness.asp Measure of Strangeness, Artspace, New Zealand]
* [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/visual-arts/news/article.cfm?c_id=355&objectid=10523842 NZ Herald article: Beyond the perfect]
* [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=355&objectid=10471865 NZ Herald review: Dear patrons, wish you were here]
* [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=355&objectid=8501068 NZ Herald article: Beautifying the outsiders]
* [http://peterstichbury.tumblr.com/ Stichbury tumblelog]
* [http://www.citygallery.org.nz/mainsite/wall-panels.html Small World, Big Town: Contemporary Art from Te Papa. City Gallery, Wellington]
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