Peter Grego
Birmingham
Peter Grego is an artist and curator based in Birmingham. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and was Director of the International Project Space, Birmingham from 2002-2012.
Focusing on tensions arising between concepts of individual identities and that of a national identity, my work explores how such ideas emerge. It encompasses a range of media, in a practice that engages with problems of nationality, location, identity, and historical memory. Projects have been developed and exhibited nationally in the UK and internationally in North and South America plus several European countries.
Since 2008, my work has focused on an extended project with artists based in Bordeaux and Birmingham. This Anglo/French exchange of ideas and exhibitions began in 2008 when five artists from the UK started an interchange with a number of French artists who are based in south-west France. In 2010 the group was invited to exhibit at the 6th Art Chartrons Festival in Bordeaux, which resulted in the exhibition Dialogue; the name and rationale was subsequently adopted by the group. In 2012, a six month period of development took place at the Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham as part of the project, Allotment. This involved eighteen international artists. Through an ongoing exchange of ideas, conversations and objects via post and Skype, those involved made a number of visual responses, which, in turn, became a catalyst for further interaction resulting in a continually changing exhibition over the six months.
A further exhibition recording responses opened at Rugby Museum and Art Gallery in 2014. The exhibition entitled Apporter sa pierre à l’édifice/Bring to the table, saw the French and British artists curating their own ideas which focused on a common interest in culturally specific phrases and idioms. In 2015, a further collaborative venture led to a number of site-specific works being created at Cairnhill in the French region of Poitou-Charente, for the Rendez-vous aux Jardins Festival.
Solo exhibitions have recently included, in 2014, an exhibition of prints at Maison Municipal Frugès-Le Corbusier. The prints related to the writings of Le Corbusier and to his work at Cité Frugès in French town, Pessac. They referenced, in particular, his publication, Urbanisme (1925).
Over the last decade my curatorial work has included exhibitions in the UK and Europe. During this period I was also the Director of the International Project Space, Birmingham (2002-2012).
In 2016, I curated, and exhibited in, the exhibition Dialogue:Déraciner at mac Birmingham. This was a seven artist collaboration, the latest iteration of the ongoing dialogue. It opened up, amongst other things, themes that make associations with borders, mapping, historical references between France and the UK and the movement of people and objects. The physical distance between the artists continues to enrich this project and the journey each thought and action makes reaffirms the idea of cross-cultural exchange.
Since 2017 I have organised and curated exhibitions for Galerie Mayci, Birmingham.
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