In Pete Wheeler's oeuvre, recurring motifs of darkness and light, ascension, trial, and fall persistently emerge. While these themes might superficially suggest the romanticised struggles of an artist's life, Wheeler's latest collection, How to Slay a Dragon (The Central Art Gallery, July/August 2024), reveals a more nuanced narrative. This series of fleshy-hued, vivid, and arresting paintings manifests not only the artist's trajectory but also a sense of renewal, confidence, and self-assurance. (Michael Greaves, July 2024)
Born in Geraldine, Aotearoa Pete Wheeler has returned to live in Ōtepoti Dunedin after living and working in Berlin, Germany for 10 years. Pete lived in Ōtepoti during the late 1990s and early 2000s, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Otago Polytechnic in 2000. In 2009 he gained a Master of Fine Arts from Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury. Pete has held solo shows in New Zealand, Australia, America and Europe and has multiple works in the James Wallace Collection, Zabludowicz Collection (London) and Martin Sosnoff Collection (New York).
