Hyper-realism is to painting what intangible reality is to the man of Plato’s cave. The height of ideal perfection embodied on canvas. This is what Michael Peck gives us in his most recent works. A trip to the idea-in-itself of the artist on his perception of life. A life it would seem, to be taken from an Enid Blyton fairy tale, with protagonists,especially small, and above all innocent. Michael Peck conceived his latest exhibition The Landing from a conversation he had with his grandfather just before he died. In him his grandfather confessed to a childhood memory he had kept under jealous silence. During WWII, German bombers flew over the city of London when one of them was hit by a bomb. The next morning the neighborhood kids came to the scene and began playing with the remains they had found. That which was designed to sow chaos and war, now served to maintain the candid spirit of London children. A moment of leisure to paint with pastels a somber and sad time. One of the most significant techniques of Michael Peck is the constant use of small monochromatic palettes to capture his works. But this time he skips all self limitation and decides to add two more colors to his palette, red and orange. This embodies new tonal attributes to the work, giving the appearance of a Polaroid photograph. War games from a child. Recently, Michael has been selected with 40 other artists as an Archibald Prize finalist, the most prestigious prize in artistic portrait in Australia. In a matter of days the winner will be announced and we wish him well!

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There are 41 artists who’s portraits have made it in this year and a majority of them are Victorians. Michael, along with fellow artists like Natasha Bieniek, Juan Ford, Vincent Fantauzzo, and Luke Cornish just to name are few will be heading up to Sydney at the end of March for the announcement of the 2012 Archibald Prize Winner.

The Archibald is an non-acquisitive prize of $75,000.

‘The painting marks a shift away from the almost black and white or sepia palette I have been using for the past few years and marks a transition into a super saturated range of warm reds and oranges,’ says Michael Peck.

‘This new palette shifts the time frame, drawing on the aesthetic of Polaroid photographs from my childhood in the late ’70s and early ’80s. The warm orange glow is the colour by which I remember my childhood in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, where my brothers and I would play war games in our neighbours’ yards. Inspired by films, we would dress up in army surplus gear and paint our faces. We’d dig bunkers, make guns from old timber scraps and run around pretending to be heroes. Now that I am in my 30s I notice the ways in which my own children play similar games and I wonder why children can be so fascinated by war.

Born in Melbourne in 1977, Peck has a Bachelor of Fine Art (honours) (Painting) from Monash University. He has exhibited as a solo artist since 1998 in Melbourne and Sydney. His work is concerned with the sensation of disorientation and dislocation often felt in the modern world. He has been represented in a number of group shows and was a finalist in the 2010 Dobell Drawing Prize, the 2005 Metro 5 Art Award and the 2002 City of Hobart Art Prize. In 1998 he was the winner of the National Gallery of Victoria’s Trustees Award.

View all finalists at Art Gallery NSW

On the way he passes a solitary man in a small, boxy office. The secretary – replete with classic French twist and 50s attire – sits in a grey-hued reception area, typing an invoice on an old black and grey typewriter. “I love it here,” Peck says. “It suits me perfectly.” It’s true. The setting is perfect when you consider Peck’s oeuvre. Renowned for his monochromatic palette and use of nostalgic imagery, his oil paintings have a unique relationship to time, memory and the idea of memento mori, the Latin phrase commonly translated as “remember that you must die”…

Editorial by Wendy Cavenett

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14 Nov – 3 Dec. Opening night
Wed. 16 Nov at Metro Gallery, 6:30-8:30pm.