Peter Waite’s large-scale paintings consider places that embody public sentiment or ideological concerns. Empty architectural monuments provide the reoccurring theme of personal and social memory. The paintings therefore invites the viewer to examine how well one knows one’s own habits of looking, of remembering, and of being certain.
Waite’s art is site-specific; he often paints from a photograph of a specific location. The places he paints are ones that viewers can easily identify, triggering personal memories of public space. The spaces are empty but there is a sense that people have just left or will soon arrive. With this latent energy, Waite’s work depicts not only architecture but also the feeling of being present within it.
Waite was born in North Adams, MA and currently works and resides in Connecticut. He studied at the Hartford Art School in West Hartford, CT where he received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts. He earned a Masters in Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Waite has received many awards including the National Endowment for the Arts, a Gottlieb Foundation award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship.
