Peter Wilkins - 'Lost in Music

Peter Wilkins' deep-rooted love of British music is the dynamic force which animates and unifies the works created for Lost in Music; an exhibition of new digital works and video portraits inspired by seminal British albums of the last 50 years and the iconic music venues that played host to them.

Wilkins presents a reinvented portraiture for the digital age; marrying new technology with a personal approach to his subject. It is this distinct and individual style which saw him selected to represent his adopted home of Newfoundland as their official artist for the 55th Venice Biennale with his critically acclaimed series of portraits of Canadian writers.

For Lost in Music, Wilkins has turned his attention to the music which defined him as a child growing up in Leicestershire in the 60’s and 70’s, through to his new playlist and the music of now; Lost in Music takes us on an audio time-travel through 5 decades, 6 concert halls, 72 albums and the artists that made them.

Wilkins is perhaps best known for his video portraits and here offers us an intimate and beguiling portal to his subjects; British recording artists including Ian Brown of Stone Roses, Matt Johnson of The The and Richard Strange of proto-punk band, Drs of Madness. The portraits are presented as a silent, slowly moving slice of time in which the relationship between artist and sitter is made tangible.

The 72 interpretations of album sleeves are a ‘hall of fame’ which range from Abbey Road to XX and an embarrassment of riches in between. Rendered at 12 inch scale, the grooves of traditional and much loved vinyl are evoked in concentric bands of colour distilled from the cover art which helped make them so memorable.