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Peter McArdle is an artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne, a former member of the Stuckist art group and co - director of NCA (Newcastle Contemporary Arts) formerly Baltic 39. Recent exhibitions include: Everybody knows this is nowhere: Painting in the Northeast now - A survey exhibition curated by Dr Narbi Price & ‘X’, ten years of Contemporary British painting at NCA Gallery.
Peter McArdles paintings explores the relationship between fine art traditions - the nude, the landscape, sculpture, as well as the history of painting itself, and reconsiders each in the context of the new digital image that now dominates visual culture. Across drawing and painting McArdle, through the relocation of digital images in a fine art context, makes an enquiry into the possibilities of narrative in such a culture. The images he creates disorientate the viewer and plunge them into the unreliable narrative and self-reflection that he suggests result from consuming images in the way we do. He invites the viewer to consider the status of the people, places and events that populate these images and negotiate the gaps between thoughts, desires and language. In doing so he asks a series of questions about contemporary visual culture - what happens when images are taken out of their contexts and sit alongside others? What happens when images find themselves in new cultural and political spaces? How does fine art relate to other image forms? What does it mean to live in a culture in which multiple images are disseminated? Ultimately for McArdle painting is an individual pursuit and a shared experience and through it he asks us to consider how painting changes how we consider these images, once we see them made material
Peter McArdle
1965 Born Tynemouth , Tyne and Wear. UK
Education
1989 – 92 BA (Hons) Fine art.
2018 -19 MFA Fine Art
1992 – 95 Co- Director , Matrix Arts .
2003 – Formed The Gateshead Stuckists
2005 - Editor of The Stuckist Website
2008 – Left The Stuckists.
Exhibitions / Professional Practice
2000 20/21 The British Art Fair London
2002 Metropolis , Mark Jason Gallery , Bond Street , London
2002 20/21 The British Art Fair , London
2003 Art London, Mark Jason Gallery, Bond Street, London
2003 Focus, Mark Jason Gallery, Bond Street, London
2003 Metropolis 2, Mark Jason Gallery, Bond Street, London
2003 New Contemporaries, Mark Jason Gallery, Bond Street, London
2004 BLUR, Mark Jason Gallery, Bond Street, London
2004 Faces, Mark Jason Gallery, Bond Street, London
2004 New York Art Fair, Mark Jason, London
2004 The Stuckist Punk Victorian, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
2004 The Stuckists, Lady Lever Gallery, Liverpool
2004 Diverse, Mark Jason Gallery, Bond Street, London
2005 The Stuckist , La Viande Gallery , London
2005 Love and Bullets , Transition Gallery < London
2008 Go West , Spectrum Gallery , London
2018 ‘Stories from The Big Flat Now . Abject Gallery Newcastle upon Tyne
2020 ‘Pause & Punctuate’. GAS Contemporary .
2022 ‘Everybody knows this is nowhere: Painting in the Northeast now. NCA Gallery.
2023. ‘X’ Contemporary British Painting. NCA Gallery.
Collections
Prudential Life Assurance , London
Standard Chattered Bank , London
Warrander Grant publishing London
Awards and Commissions
Work commission by The Tyne and Wear Development Corporation.
Numerous commissions By Arts Resource , Sunderland
Billboard Commission for the Coalition against Crime (Reproduced on billboards for “The year of Visual Arts.
Publicity
Featured in Arts Review
Recommended in Hot Ticket , London Evening Standard
Recommended in The Guardian art Guide (Weekend)
Interview BBC Radio London
Interview BBC Radio Newcastle
Review in the London Evening Standard
Featured ‘The Crack Magazine’ Newcastle Upon Tyne
Featured Narc Magazine
“Augurs well for the future of British painting” , Arts Review
“ A top draughtsman with a funky fluid style “ London Evening Standard
