Maman x Jaimee Peters by {Suite} Gallery
Jaimee Peters (Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa) is currently living, working and painting in Wellington after completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts - Painting, at the University of Canterbury, School of Fine Arts.
Jaimee's practice aims to explore the tension between abstraction and representation and seek an aesthetic resolution that is just out of reach. Her paintings are full of contradictory associations of ideas and issues - fluid and static, chaotic and controlled, accessible and repelling.
Her process involves drawing from architectural images, usually public buildings or brutalist structures, reconfiguring their linear planes with incompatible colour to make a new form part real and part imagined.
Maman is proud to partner with {Suite} Gallery to bring Jaimee's art to our Auckland boutique. We celebrated the partnership with an in-store launch showcasing the full selection of Jaimee's 'Shapes of Spaces' exhibition.
Read on below to learn more about Jaimee's process, her inspiration and what is her dream project.
Recent artworks by Jaimee Peters are available for viewing at {Suite} Gallery.
Q&A with Jaimee Peters
What art do you most identify with?
Modernism and abstraction. Work that doesn’t thoroughly digest without contextual understanding. I like to have to think after I’m drawn in.
When is your favourite time of day to create?
Any time I can, headphones on to block out daily distraction and I’m ready. I can lose days creating and it always feels worth it.
What is your background?
I grew up in rural Canterbury, my mother from Christchurch and father from the Far North. Social and cultural equity were big values in my hardworking childhood home. I attended the Ilam School of Fine Arts and eventually continued studies in education while working various day jobs.
Is there a specific environment or material that’s integral to your work?
Materials.
- Board. I love the physical resistance you get with board and that nothing can be fully ‘smoothed over'. Every choice and every layer is still visible.
- And oil. I’m a bit of an oil paint puritan. The range of pigments, how they interact, how the viscosity and fluidity can be manipulated. There is so much to do with oil paint.
What is your dream project?
Not so much a project, but I’d love to be able to hang several works and have them all on the go at once. I’m currently working in a pretty small space, so it’s not until they’re installed that I get to see them operate together
Favourite or most inspirational place to visit?
I’ve been in Wellington since just before the pandemic, which made the move even though not far, a bit of an isolating one. My favourite places to go will always be where my dearest friends and family are. If it coincides with a quiet sandy beach and hot weather, then even better!
From the world of fashion, who is your favourite designer?
This is a hard question. I’ve never been particularly cool, but I am a bit of a fan of the Maison Margiela aesthetic.
