Peter James Hewitt of the Jerringa people (Orient Point, NSW) of the Yuan Nation was born in April 1983. He grew up in the western Sydney suburb of Blacktown before relocating to Nowra in 1996. Nowra is the closest major centre to his family’s traditional homeland of Orient Point.
In 2001, Hewitt moved to Wollongong and soon after began a Bachelor of Creative Arts degree at the University of Wollongong, majoring in visual art. He continued his education at this university, in 2004 gaining a Graduate Diploma of Education.
His work of mixed media, oils and acrylics on canvas or board speak of “subjective notions of Koori hybrid identity” and “explore contemporary forms of narrative and language through gestural mark making and colours that reconnect to the traditional custodians of the land” (Hewitt, in email correspondence with the author).
Hewitt began exhibiting locally in Wollongong in 2001. His first exhibition was “Class Art 2” at the Wollongong City Gallery. His first solo exhibition was a self-titled show exhibited at Levers Art Supplies, Wollongong, in 2003. His work has been shown in group exhibitions at Project Contemporary Artspace in Wollongong, PD Art Gallery in Gymea and Damien Minton Gallery in Redfern. He also continues to exhibit in solo exhibitions with 2006 seeing two solo’s at Project Contemporary Artspace and Chase Contemporary and Tribal Arts in Annandale.
Hewitt was selected to show his work at Campbelltown Arts Centre in their annual Fishers Ghost Art Award in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 winning the Aboriginal category in 2007 and 2008. Also in 2008, he was also short-listed in the Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the 25th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award and the 2008 Parliament of New South Wales Indigenous Art Prize.
In 2008 Hewitt was still living and working in Wollongong on the New South Wales south coast.
- Writers:
- Allas, Tess
staffcontributor
- Date written:
- 2008
- Last updated:
- 2011
