Major Suspect

Peter Maloney, Untitled, 2015, acrylic and graphite on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist.
Reception: 12 February 2016 6:00pm
Duration: Saturday, February 13, 2016 - 12:00 - Friday, February 26, 2016 - 17:00
Location: School of Art Main Gallery
I have been working in art for most of my adult life and some of my childhood. That is an awfully long time. One thing I can say with any certitude is that making art makes me feel safe. That is not to say that I don’t regard risk-taking as important, it means that if the risks I do take fail, it will not be the end of the world. It might spoil my day at worst.
I am drawn to artists who have either chosen to exist on the fringes of art practice or have been unfairly relegated to those positions. Ray Johnson, Paul Thek, Michael Buthe, all deceased gay men, have gotten under my skin and influenced my own thinking. “Failure” as a strong possibility stalks my studio.
Lately I have augmented my work with humour. Nothing flirts with failure like humour does. Stand-up comics die onstage when the sound of laughter is missing. In a gallery situation an artist can seem to die when there is the sound of laughter. One can never be sure how such a visceral reaction should be taken.
I actually love to hear laughter in front of my work. My artist death-wish seems fulfilled. Who knows just whom the joke is on?
Peter Maloney has been exhibiting his work for over 25 years after studying in Canberra and Melbourne. He is primarily a painter but has also made photographic work, often used in collage or photocopy but rarely as fine-art prints. His personal experience with the HIV and AIDS communities has informed much of what he does.
His first solo exhibition was the initial show mounted at the now-defunct Legge Gallery, Sydney. He exhibited with Legge for nine years before relocating to Canberra and withdrew from exhibiting for a few years, taking up teaching in the Painting Workshop, ANU. During those professionally quiet years he reinvented his approach to abstract painting and began to use low-tech methods (ie photocopier) to formulate his work. Since that time his works have been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Utopia Art Sydney and numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally.
Maloney has had two solo exhibitions at Canberra Contemporary Art Space and more recently had a two-person exhibition “Action Stations” with Melbourne artist Louise Paramor.
During 2015 his work was included in “Octopus 15- Lost & Profound” at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne and “Pulse –Reflections on the Body” at Canberra Museum & Gallery. Maloney’s work is represented in collections of The National Gallery of Australia, Newcastle Regional Gallery, ACT Legislative Assembly, ArtBank, Canberra Museum & Gallery and numerous other regional collections. He is currently Visiting Fellow in the Painting Workshop, ANU.
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