PETER ADSETT
ROOM WITH A VIEW
MELBOURNE ART FAIR
13-17 AUGUST 2014
ROYAL EXHIBITION BUILDING
PAULNACHE STAND E125

Shouldn’t there be more artists today who could make us look at painting in terms of its co-operation with the surrounding architecture? 

The view offered in this room is not the contemplative distance that we require when we behold figurative work. These abstract paintings are without the perspectival trajectories that focus the eye on central point. And they don’t ‘stay’ inside their frames. Instead, the elements of the painting closely interact with the wall – and in fact, with all the architectural elements. 

The MAF gallery walls have been treated in such a way as to make this idea inescapable. Torn wallpaper speaks to collage elements in the work, while holes and raw linen acknowledge the wall behind. Black paint does what it has to in working against shadow and depth. Layers of material peel away to expose undersides and reverses. All the works, walls included, are in an ongoing process of exposure. 

Peter Adsett has challenged our perception in confusing the ground of painting. Wall, linen, paper and paint all compete to be identified as ground or figure. In the end we conclude that the only ground is the one where we stand. So the perspective we attain is actually one we are inside. 

Biography 

Born in Gisborne, New Zealand, in 1959, Peter Adsett has lived and worked in Australia since 1981, developing his painting practice. He exhibits regularly in both countries, and has had shows overseas in New York and Boston. 

His academic credentials include an MFA from the Northern Territory University, and a PhD from Australian National University. In 2001 he was awarded a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and enjoyed residencies in the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York, and the McDowell Colony in New Hampshire. Adsett’s work is held in institutions and museums in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. 

Adsett has devoted twenty years now to an investigation of abstraction, and like such iconic figures as Richard Serra and Robert Ryman, he proves the enterprise to be one of great, untapped potential. One could even view Adsett’s art as a critique of abstract  painting from the early 20th century to today, a task that became further complicated when he confronted the art of Indigenous Australians - what many believe is the most powerful painting produced today. 

In 2000 he completed a series of large-scale acrylic paintings in collaboration with the Gija artist, Rusty Peters. The resulting exhibition of fourteen works (seven each), titled Two Laws, One Big Spirit travelled around Australia and New Zealand. 

In 2009, Adsett built a house/studio in southern Victoria that was the fruit of another collaboration, this time with a New Zealand architect, Sam Kebbell. The innovative and much admired building (now housing Adsett and his family) is regarded as a “dialogue between painting and architecture.” 

This is the direction currently being explored in the works for the 2014 Melbourne Art Fair. Whilst he would maintain that his paintings always “take on the wall”, Adsett’s recent work engages with this proposition explicitly. Furthermore, in Room with a View the viewer will discover a degree of wit and humour, latent in much of his earlier work, but now coming to the fore with zest.

ROOM WITH A VIEW: A CONVERSATION BETWEEN ARTIST PETER ADSETT, ARCHITECT SAM KEBBELL AND ART HISTORIAN MARY ALICE LEE 

SATURDAY 16 AUGUST 11AM | ART, TALKS AND WALKS 

Melbourne Art Fair ticket holders. 

In 2009, NZ-born, Melbourne based painter Peter Adsett collaborated with NZ architect Sam Kebbell to build ‘Humbug’ studio/house, creating a “dialogue between painting and architecture.” This is the direction currently being explored in Adsett’s site specific installation and works exhibited at the Fair.

ARTIST STUDIO AND PRIVATE COLLECTION TOUR: PAULNACHE PRESENTS PETER ADSETT 

SUNDAY 17 AUGUST | 9:30AM -12:30PM 

Collector Pass holders only. Login to RSVP. 

Join this private collection and artist studio tour of Humbug House, a dialogue between Peter Adsett (artist), Sam Kebbell (Kebbell Daish Architects) and Mary Alice Lee (art historian/ writer), and discover how architecture can be combined with painting to create something extraordinary.