Peter Maloney
Over the past half century, Peter Maloney produced a polymorphous body of work across multiple media, including, collage, painting, photography, performance, sound, and video. As a painter, his early commitment to gestural abstraction gave way to a broader practice of genre-defying bafflement. I suggest this, because in examining Maloney's series of works over the past twenty years, I propose that they can best be mentally assembled and appreciated as a wilful puzzle.
Maloney continued to repeat the associated themes of language, text and meaning through his work over the course of his 50-year career. Largely seen as a painter in abstract idioms, much of his work was self-described as 'linear abstraction'. However, in returning to the overarching context of language and meaning, it's virtually impossible not to discern a clear graphic sensibility at work in his practice, including distinct calligraphic, and rhythmic structures supporting his works' compositions. However, in his practice, nothing is quite as it initially appears, and meaning can only be inferred - not taken literally.
Maloney's modes of expression can be understood as vernaculars of the artist's visual lexicon - amply demonstrated in his prodigious output and seen time and again throughout his extensive exhibition history. By not having developed a readily identifiable appearance, or 'brand' associated with his body of work and its visual expression, Maloney possibly risked being misunderstood, or his conceptual intentions misrepresented. Rather than electing for the optics of easy comprehension, he preferred to be visible through the essentially eclectic character of his work and its very distortion. In doing so, he insisted on being identified as different - hybrid - non-prescriptive - queer. His idiosyncratic imagery forms a cryptic, diaristic narrative throughout his career, and Maloney's practice often appears intimate to the point of being private. From his close personal experiences, the artist understood joy, elation, loss and grief, and his familiarity with these extremes of emotional response reflects our own journeys through belief, liminal space, the unconscious, and the unknown.
Mark Bayly
2025
Mark Bayly is an independent curator and writer, with a 30-year career of producing exhibitions in prominent art museums, galleries, and heritage buildings. He and Peter Maloney were partners for 28 years.
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Abstraction: System, Signs, Syntheses30/3/25 TO 18/5/25
Curated by Tony Mighell, this exhibition celebrates expressive freedom through drawing, calligraphy and material exploration.
Includes Peter Maloney and Emily Kame Kngwarreye
Trinity Delmar Gallery, Sydney
Blake Art Prize11 May - 7 July
The 68th Blake Prize is now at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Sydney. Peter Maloney is a finalist
Inner SanctumUntil June 2 2024
Peter Maloney is featured in the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Curated by Jose Da Silva, Inner Sanctum includes art work across many media that explores our understanding of our relationships with each other and the world.
Peter Maloney at CCAS, Canberra.April 15 - June 3 2023
Mark Bayly has curated this survey exhibition of the work of his partner Peter Maloney.
Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Lakeside, Canberra ACT
Peter Maloney - Fugitive TextMarch 4th, 2023
Utopia Art Sydney will be opening Peter Maloney exhibition on the 4th of March, with the Sydney book launch of Fugitive Text to be launched by Mark Bayly at 4pm
AGSA acquires Peter Maloney paintingOctober 2022
The Art Gallery of South Australia has acquired a major new Peter Maloney painting.
Paul Guest PrizeAugust 5 to October 30, 2022
Peter Maloney is a finalist in this year's Paul Guest Prize at Bendigo Gallery in Victoria
Peter Maloney Fugitive Text Book LaunchJuly 6 2022
This beautifully designed book of Peter Maloney's work incorporating photography painting and collage, with insightful texts by Lynne Tillman and Shaune Lakin. Available through M.33 Melbourne.
Book Lauch at Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, Saturday October 15, 3pm.
Peter Maloney wins prizeFebruary 27 - March 26, 2021
Peter Maloney is the winner of this year's Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, a prestigious acquisitive prize at the Adelaide Perry Gallery, PLC, Croydon, Sydney, NSW
Canberra Critics Circle 2018 Awards November 13, 2018
Liz Coats' exhibition Active Seeing and Peter Maloney's exhibition Missing in Action, both at the Drill Hall Gallery at the Australian National University won Canberra Critics Circle Visual Arts Awards 2018.
Paintings amongst other thingsUntil September 1, 2018
Peter Maloney is featured in the ANU School of Art Gallery in Canberra, highlighting the many students and staff who have been associated with the ANU over the past 50 years.
Peter Maloney: Missing in Action13 April - 3 June, 2018
Since the early 1980's Peter Maloney has produced a vast body of works on paper.
In this survey exhibition "Missing in Action" Maloney presents a vibrant and lyrical body of work. Curated by Tony Oates and Terence Maloon.
Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University. (catalogue available)
The National 201730 March - June 18, 2017
The National: New Australian Art presents the latest ideas and forms in contemporary
Australian art, curated across three of Sydney's premier cultural institutions:
the AGNSW, MCA and Carriageworks.
Peter Maloney has been included with new paintings and a series of related works on paper. Maloney explores a new interconnected, almost
organic cellular structure composed of connecting lines that form rings, symbols of growth or the pulsing of energy.
Actions Stations reviewedSeptember 2014
A great review by Peter Haynes of 'Action Stations: Peter Maloney and Louise Paramor' at CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE until September 28.
Peter Maloney: Canberra & SydneyAugust 2014
A vibrant painting by Peter Maloney features in "Loose Canon", an exhibition curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham at the new Artbank HQ on Young St in Waterloo. On display until November 15 2014.
Also, Peter Maloney's exhibition "Action Stations", with Louise Paramor, opened last night at Canberra Contemporary Art Space. (installation shot pictured left)
Exhibition runs until 27 September 2014.
Action Stations: Peter Maloney at CCASAugust 2014
“Action Stations”, an exhibition of recent work by Peter Maloney and
Louise Paramor, will be at Canberra Contemporary Art Space from 22
August - 27 September 2014.
Opening 6pm Friday 22 August.
Peter Maloney - Newcastle Art GalleryJanuary 2014
‘Peter Maloney: A Focus’ will present an overview of Maloney’s practice from 1979 - 2012. At Newcastle Art Gallery from 15 February - 11 May 2014.
New work from Peter Maloney:July 2013
Peter Maloney acquisitionJune 2013
We are pleased to annouced that the painting Equinox (pictured), from Peter Maloney’s exhibition ‘Radar & Other Fabulous Colours’ has been acquired by a public institution.
Next up: Peter MaloneyMay 2013
‘Radar & Other Fabulous Colours’, an exhibition of Peter Maloney’s latest work, will open on Saturday 11 May. Save the date!
Peter Maloney at Sydney UniMay 2013
See work by Peter Maloney in ‘Test Pattern’, an exhibition curated by Geoff Newton, which will open at the Sydney University Art Gallery on Saturday 4 May. There will be a conversation with the curator and exhibition artists from 1-2pm. Peter Maloney at Sydney Uni.
See work by Peter Maloney in ‘Test Pattern’, an exhibition curated by Geoff Newton, which will open at the Sydney University Art Gallery on Saturday 4 May. There will be a conversation with the curator and exhibition artists from 1-2pm.
Marea Gazzard - Art Gallery of South AustraliaMarch 2013
Marea Gazzard’s ceramic sculpture Torso 1 of 1967 is included in ‘The mind’s eye’, an exhibition of works from the Art Gallery of South Australia’s collection.
Peter Maloney: Test PatternMay 2012
See paintings by Peter Maloney in a group show looking at found abstraction in Australian contemporary art. ‘Test Pattern’ is at Margaret Lawrence Gallery, 40 Dodds Street Southbank, Melbourne until 9 June.