Peter Trevelyan

Peter Trevelyan’s work investigates space, geometry, drawing and architecture through the manipulation of hundreds of pencil leads into three-dimensional structures. His assemblage of repeated graphite patterns is elegant, refined and delicate; simultaneously merging elements of drawing and sculpture into the Gallery space.

Elements of sculpture and drawing are seamlessly and technically merged into the three-dimensional practice of Peter Trevelyan. The Wellington based artist has become renowned for manipulating hundreds of pencil leads into refined and elegant geometric constructions. This assemblage of a repeated graphite pattern, flat planes and straight lines, delicately protrudes from the gallery walls. The Crystal Line stems from, and explores, an observation Trevelyan made through the construction of earlier works – namely that there was a particular structure that the lead, or in fact any mass of equal length rods, seemed predisposed to forming. It is as if the graphite itself had an innate or instinctive tendency to sit in this particular way, rather than being forced or moulded by the artist. Trevelyan’s careful and patient work asks us to consider not only elements of sculpture and geometry but also architecture, physics and perhaps even nature itself. 

Peter Trevelyan completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts in 2000. He graduated with his Master of Fine Arts in 2008 and his PhD in 2014 at Massey University’s School of Fine Arts. Solo exhibitions include Peter Trevelyan: Tenuous, 2012, Pataka Art + Museum, Porirua, Wellington; The Light Fantastic, 2010, City Gallery Wellington; the incompleteness theorem, 2008, The Physics Room, Christchurch; Actron and Reactron, 2007, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington; and Persevertron, 2006, The Engine Room, Massey University, Wellington. Group exhibitions include Solo 2014: Five Wellington Artists, 2014, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt; Shifting Lines, 2013, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu; Prospect 2011, City Gallery Wellington; and Out of Erewhon, 2006, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu.