Peter Waite: Social Memory, Paintings 1987–2025

Peter Waite (b. 1950) lives and works in Connecticut. Best known as a painted, Waite creates large-format paintings that represent real places across the globe: public sites void of human figures yet charged with a strong sense of presence. From train stations and parks to churches and schools, these shared public spaces build a distinctive visual language through which Waite explores the intersection between architecture and social memory.

By social memory, Waite means all the shared remembrances and associations that a society attaches to physical spaces. He is especially drawn to overlooked or forgotten corners, making the familiar feel strange and transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. Working in acrylic on rigid panels, his compositions are informed by personal memories of travel, reinforced by photographs and sketches. The result is a profound reflection on the interplay between personal and social memory. This exhibition traces the evolution of his remarkable practice from the late 1980s to his most recent work, revealing how our communal places become markers of identity, ideology, and transformation.

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