Peter Dykhuis

The work in Peripheral Traces (Dark Heart) began as collaged layers of paper-based ephemera - such as personal lists, envelopes, receipts, cards and notes - that were organized into three categories according to their social and economic locations within the artist’s life.  

The paper fields were then mounted onto clipboards and overlaid with squares of encaustic wax paint or the following image-patterns: 
-     weather-based graphics on the Home Front series;
-     economic charts and symbols on the Work Force series;
-     gaming/board graphics on the Art World series.

The resulting visual phrases document the material traces of a common life overwritten with emblematic references to larger environmental, economic and social/cultural forces.

Peter Dykhuis was born in London, Ontario, attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, worked in Toronto until 1991 before relocating to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he continues to live and practice. Dykhuis has exhibited in numerous artist-run centres and public galleries throughout Canada. Internationally, he has participated in group shows across the United States as well as in London and Vienna and has mounted solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Sydney and New York City.

dykhuis.ca