Peter Deckers was born in the Netherlands and completed his early jewellery training and education there. He immigrated to New Zealand in 1985 and completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at Elam, Auckland University, in 2003.
Deckers, who now works as a part time senior art tutor at Whitireia, Porirua, is both a contemporary artist and a craftsperson. Ideas that make distinctive connections with jewellery are the inspiration for his work, and a recent 20 year survey exhibition at Pataka, Porirua, highlighted his interest in language through a series of engaging pieces displayed with accompanying sound.
Deckers exhibits with dealer galleries throughout New Zealand and internationally. His work, philosophy and ideas have also been the subject of a book, 'Choices of the Hand; a Survey of Work from New Zealand Jeweller Peter Deckers', introduction by Stevan Eldred-Grigg, published by First Editions, Wellington (supported by Creative New Zealand).
He looks for what he calls the 'surprising complexity' of things and then seeks to work his way into that complexity beneath a surface which at first can seem a kind of commonness, a sort of normality, neutrality or simplicity. Consequently, each work is unique. Deckers never repeats a design.
(Stevan Eldrid-Grigg, Choices of the Hand, 2006)
Most jewellery doesn't want to confuse you with complex ideas. It states its identity baldly and plainly - a precious reproduced object around which our own complex feelings of self and identity can then be amassed.
It takes a strong artist therefore to make jewellery that also succeeds as art. To be able to create objects that retain jewellery boldness and finesse, yet also have the depth of life and mystery of great art.
Peter Deckers is one such New Zealand jeweller; one of a select few who can be considered as fine a contemporary artist as he is craftsperson. Ideas rather than beauty drive Decker's practice. Not that his objects aren't exquisite, but what's distinctive here is that his work is often (and when it is most successful) actually about the ideas that surround jewellery.
(Mark Amery, Jewellery in the Crown, review, Dominium Post, Wellington 23/9-05, B16)
Selected Exhibitions
2008
Treasure Trove, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland
2007
Mourning Jewellery from the Chernobyl collection, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland
Spinning Straw, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland
Give and Take, Exalt gallery, Wellington
The Originals, exhibition, Quoil, Wellington
Annual Group Show, Fingers, Auckland
2006
Jewellery Out of Context (JOC), NZ travel exhibition (organisation, co-curation and exhibition coordination, layout and design), The Muse, Ultimo, Sydney, Australia
Mourning Jewellery from the Chernobyl collection, a Belarusian travel exhibition, Sherman Galleries, Paddington, Sydney, Australia
National Jewellery Design Exhibition, Wellington (guest exhibitor)
Stolen Jewels, Fingers, Auckland
Annual Group Show, Fingers, Auckland
2005
Red, Quoil, Wellington
Neckware 5 Masterworks, Auckland
Customised, a survey of jewellery, by Peter Deckers, exhibition, Pataka Museum, Porirua
Annual Group Show, Fingers Gallery, Auckland
2004
Delegate, JMGA conference exhibition, RMIT, Melbourne (Australia)
Dutch artists in New Zealand, 'Acoustic Tile installation' (with sound), Pataka Museum, Porirua
200 rings exhibition, Velvet Da Vinci, San Francisco, USA
The Reproduction Guild (reworked), exhibition sound/jewellery installation, Te Manawa Museum, Palmerston North
Annual Group Show, Fingers, Auckland
2003
New to New Zealand, Masterworks, Auckland
Bloom, Oxoxo gallery, Baltimore and Stone Harbor, New Jersey (USA)
Precious, Hirschfeld gallery (City Art gallery), Wellington
Shut-Up series: installation KitschORama, Pataka Museum, Porirua (NZ)
Annual Group Show, Fingers, Auckland
2002
Neckwear 2 Masterworks, Auckland
Where I call home, Quoil, Wellington
Greetings from Maori-land, exhibition sound/jewellery installation, Auckland University, Auckland
'Guild Unlimited', part installation, Edinburgh (Scotland), 'Craft in the 21st Century' conference
Annual Group Show, FIngers, Auckland
2001
Grammar: Objects and Subjects, 4th NZ jewellery biennial, installation: Now Then, Who Owns What, Dowse Art Museum, Hutt City, Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland, Otago Museum, Dunedin and Hawkes Bay Museum, Napier
Guild Unlimited, installation the Reproduction Guild, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (to 2004)
Pin Up, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland
Anonevent, Fingers, 2001
Annual Group Show, Fingers, Auckland
2000
Millennium exhibition, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland
Neckwear 1, Masterworks, Auckland
Millennium Medallions, City Gallery, Wellington
Annual Group Show, FIngers, Auckland
1999
Deep Rings in Fishbowls (1) Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt
Deeper Still, rings in fishbowls (2) Eon, Auckland
Turangawaewae, The 3rd NZ Jewellery Biennial, Hawkes Bay Museum, Napier, and Public Art Gallery, Dunedin
Annual Group Show, Fingers, Auckland
1998
Turangawaewae, The 3rd NZ Jewellery Biennial, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt
Annual Group Show, Fingers, Auckland
1997
Annual Group Show, Fingers, Auckland
Contemporary Wearables, Toowoomba, Australia
1996
The same but different, 2nd NZ jewellery Biennial, Dowse Art Museum, Hutt City, Auckland, Dunedin
Festival Jewels, International Festival of the Arts, Wellington
Annual Group Show, Fingers, Auckland
1993
Two Worlds, a Continuation, exhibition, gallery 33 1/3, Wellington
1992
Contemporary NZ Jewellery and Boxes, San Diego, USA
Two worlds, Containers and Valuables, gallery 33 1/3, Wellington
1989
Environmental Distortions, exhibition, gallery 33 1/3, Wellington
1980
Bugs, exhibition, collaboration project with Niek van Driel (jewellery) and Darius Gunneberg (paintings), The Hague (NL)
Please contact the gallery for further information on available work.
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