This solo exhibition of new work by Peter Adsett is in association with Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territories, Australia and was curated by Stephen Williamson. The exhibition runs from 26th November 2021 until 20th March 2022, concluding alongside his exhibitions ‘Tri-Nations’ and ‘To Face Painting’ shows in Tūrangnui-a-Kiwa, Gisborne.

Foul Play presents the most recent work of Peter Adsett – none of which has been previously exhibited. It continues Adsett’s investigation of abstraction, something he has been engrossed in for almost twenty-five years. He sees his art as a critique of modernist painting, a task that became further challenging when he confronted the art of Indigenous Australians – what many believe is the most powerful painting produced in this country today.

Scission challenges the viewer in different ways. Scission I is a triptych in which two heavily textured black sheets bookend a third, which has turned its (unpainted) back to us. Black stained edges around white are the evidence. Scission II being a single, long black rectangle, the work is torn in two, the right side apparently released to the force of gravity. With the fall suspended in action, we gaze at not one, but two edges, neither of which can logically connect, in order to level the square. This is an address not just to the eyes, but to the body; we want to halt the fall and re-connect the edges; assert control sliced through the mid-line and falling to the floor is “executed”, literally and metaphorically.

Also view

Brushworks
Two Black Squares
Foul Play