Peter Hanmer

Peter Hanmer was born in 1992 in Northumberland. He studied at the University for the Creative Arts and Newcastle University, where he received a BA (Hons) (2014) and Masters of Fine Art with Distinction (2018) respectively. Winner of the Gillian Dickinson North East Young Sculptor of The Year award 2017, he has been shortlisted for multiple awards and has exhibited his work at a variety of galleries and venues both locally and internationally. Select exhibitions include: Plato’s Lair (solo), Cheeseburn Sculpture Garden (2018); Digital Citizen – The Precarious Subject, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (2019); The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London (2014); AUTONOMY, The Auxiliary, Middlesbrough (2019); Modern Panic VI, Apiary Studios, London (2015); FLUX Exhibition, The Royal College of Art, London (2015); utopia: dystopia, Fringe Arts Bath Festival (2016); and MFA Connect, Victoria University, Victoria, Canada, (2018).

Drawing on varied interests including history, philosophy and storytelling, my work might be described as allegorical, dystopian and strangely disturbing. I’m interested in art as a cultural and political critique and its capacity to present alien yet familiar worlds. My influences include Plato, Descartes and today’s builders of computer simulations who question the authenticity of our ordinary experience. They raise doubts about how we can distinguish reality from substitutes made of shadows, dreams or virtual simulations. My work also explores the political dimension of reality and the extent by which it is shaped by fantasy and propaganda.

The artwork presented here is a selection of my daily pen and ink drawings completed during the coronavirus lockdown.