Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, until 7 July 2007

Bowl by Peter White.

THE DISTINCT and enigmatic work of Ullapool-based artist Peter White now on exhibition at IMAG provides a welcome opportunity for stillness and contemplation.

White’s technique of oil, acrylic and wax on board is intensive and intricate, creating exquisite surfaces that beg closer inspection. Rough texture created by layers of paint and wax read like psychological and archetypal excavations. The artist’s palette and composition are highly controlled, focused on form and subtle use of colour that convey a mood of meditative calm.

A series of heads and bowls on dark grounds are beautifully rendered, seemingly emerging out of a state of darkness. The direct gaze of the eyes behind a blue-ish veil of wax and paint simultaneously convey human vulnerability and a timeless quality due to their monumental form.

There is no riot of colour here, but a shallow sculpting of heads and vessels in wax and paint, warm interplay between burnt umber and sienna, ochre and cool opaque blues dripped and etched away over the surface. The charcoal greys and rust-like edges of one vessel seem to suggest a process of evolution through elements of fire and time.

The largest of the bowl series is (like the others) seemingly empty, but we cannot ultimately view what it contains. This tension between what we immediately recognise visually and what we cannot know is also part of the artist’s creative process and signature.

“Broken Vessel”, with its jagged edges, is disturbingly violent in the contrast between form and White’s characteristically controlled palette. This image seems to creep up on you like the destructive result of contained rage.

The broken vessel motif reoccurs as part of a triptych with folding panels reminiscent of a church alterpiece. Traditional religious connotations are also reflected in “Head”, with the suggestion of a crown of thorns in paper and a single strand of wire.

Without the confrontation of a crucifixion we are exposed to a gentler focus on the human form, eyes closed in sleep, meditation or even death. The central panel of the triptych contains two faces, one being held by the other and the suggestion of a cross in pale line concentrated in the right hand corner.

Here the scale shifts back from archetypal symbol to human intimacy and vulnerability. The artist leaves the audience with questions rather than a visual representation of ultimate truth associated with organised religion allowing the viewer to undertake a journey of their own.

This is one instance where a smaller room with an absence of natural light adjoining the already small first floor gallery at IMAG actually works to good effect creating a chapel-like atmosphere.

The downside is not being able to step back from the work, although there is an intensity created by being confronted by work on a large scale at close quarters that seems to amplify the nature of the composition.

The series of human heads in particular are both psychological and spiritual in their scale and intensity. Although there are traces of the artist’s own features, they read very much as everyman figures that the audience can easily transpose and engage with. The scale removes the intimacy of a portrait and reflects a still and meditative state of being.

This solo show presents an excellent opportunity to see the Peter White’s work further afield when, like the Latitudes Exhibition, it tours Highland Council exhibition spaces in Wick (St Fergus Gallery, 14 July-11 August) and Thurso (Swanson Gallery, 25 September-20 October). Peter White’s work is also regularly represented at Kilmorack Gallery, by Beauly.

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

Links

• IMAG