Peter Wilkins (born July 26, 1968) is a British mulitimedia artist living in Newfoundland, Canada. He is best known for his kinetic portraits, in particular, 12 Kinetic Portraits of Canadian Writers. These works have been exhibited at The Rooms Provincial Gallery in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador and the entire suite was purchased by the Portrait Gallery of Canada in 2008. Wilkins' most recent work investigated the modernist design of Gander International Airport. These artworks, digital print and video, were exhibited at The Rooms Provincial Gallery as part of Newtopia from Sept 2008 - January 2009. In the summer of 2009 his portraits of Prominent Newfoundlanders will be exhibited at Confederation Centre for the Arts in Prince Edward Island. He is currently the aritst-in-residence at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Wilkins has appeared on British TV, as co-host in Dom Joly's Happy Hour for Sky TV. The pair travelled the world exploring global drinking habits and how different cultures approached alcohol. Wilkins also accompanied Dom Joly in Excellent Adventures, again for Sky TV and broadcast on the OLN network in Canada.
Peter grew up in Leicestershire, England. He attended Stowe School in Buckinghamshire and then studied computing and business at the West London Institute of Higher Education (now Brunel University). Wilkins lived in London until 1991 when he moved to Canada and then Prague. Since 1998, he has lived in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
The Colour of Wine investigates and celebrates the varying and contrasting colours of wine. The completed works are reminiscent of colourfield paintings in their luminescence and depth of colour. While they work as form of abstract expressionism, they also accurately document and present the tonal shifts and depth of colour within a glass of wine. Each wine glass is held at a 45 degree angle to capture the variation of colour, so what you see is the genuine portrayal of the colours within a glass of wine.The wines featured in this series are Beaujolais (Gamay), Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Malbec, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Shiraz and Zinfandel. The large scale work, Shiraz, can be seen at the Christina Parker Gallery in Downtown St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Kinetic Portraits
In 2004 Peter exhibited his first series of Kinetic Portraits which were of 12 Prominent Newfoundlanders. Kinetic Portraits of 12 Prominent Newfoundlanders is currently on exhibit at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The exhibit marks the 60th year of Newfoundland’s Confederation with Canada.
In 2005 and 2006, Wilkins created 12 Kinetic Portraits of Canadian Writers. Combining explorations of portraiture, technology and interpretation, these portraits feature representations of twelve celebrated Canadian writers, including Margaret Atwood, Roch Carrier, Austin Clarke, Douglas Coupland, Wayne Johnston, Anne-Marie MacDonald, Alistair MacLeod, Yann Martel, Anne Michaels, David Adams Richards, Jane Urquhart and M.G. Vassanji. Off-camera, Wilkins has engaged his sitters in a series of personal questions, exploring their hopes, fears and ideals. The resulting likenesses embody the process of "sitting" itself, pushing the traditional idea of portraiture by adding the dimension of time. The exhibition was curated by Bruce Johnson for The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery in St. John's, NL.
The Portrait Gallery of Canada acquired 12 Kinetic Portraits of Canadian Writers in 2008.
Gander International
Gander International is an exploration of the design and aesthetic of late 1950s modernism at Gander International Airport in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador. Wilkins used a range of processes, from the durational to the optical to present the airport in a new light.
This collection was included as part of Newtopia, an exhibition curated by Bruce Johnson at The Rooms in St. John's, Newfoundland in 2008/2009 that explored key developments in modern Newfoundland, considering the new province's early decades as a series of Utopian experiments.
Wilkins is the current Artist in Residence at Memorial University of Newfoundland. During his tenure, he will focus on creating a range of group portraits within the Faculty of Arts. According to Wilkins 'it is the coming together of individuals of different ages, nationalities, religions, disciplines and backgrounds that is the key process of learning. To reflect this process I want to create kinetic portraits of various groups that naturally meet as part of the day to day business within the Faculty of Arts, including but not confined to large classes, seminars, discussion groups, one to one conversations, departmental meetings, faculty meetings and administrative groups.
In 2005, Wilkins joined Dom Joly in a documentary as part of a series on Sky One. Dom Joly's Excellent Adventure involved the two travelling to Beirut for the first time since Joly left in the late 1980s, and embarking on a road trip through the Syrian Desert to find a cave in which Joly had scrawled his name as a child. They did discover it after much searching.
Dom Joly's Happy Hour
Dom Joly's Happy Hour is a spoof travel investigation in which Joly and Wilkins team up to explore drinking habits around the world. They travelled to the Southern States of the U.S., Russia, Australia, Europe and India. During the first documentary the pair explored Miami drinking styles, then met up with some hillbillies in the Appalachians tasting moonshine, and visited a gay cowboy bar in Atlanta before taking on the Christian right in Alabama's dry counties. After that, the pair travelled to Russia, trying 80% alcohol (by volume) homemade vodka known as Samogon. They then visited Australia, Mexico and Europe before ending the tour in India.
Churchill Falls is the world's 2nd largest hydroelectric plant. Wilkins plans to artistically capture and represent the enormous hydro generating power of the Churchill Falls Hydro Plant, building on his existing techniques, from creating abstract patterns with photographic realism and using time based works focusing on the movement, relationship and evolvement of colour and form.
