Outsider

Peter Illingworth

January 2008

In 2006 our own Marlene Markle curated a show by Peter Illingworth for the Harriston-Minto Heritage Gallery called Art Being Me. It was Illingworth’s first solo exhibition. We asked Marlene to curate a show of Illingworth’s worksmanship and artistry for the Durham Art Gallery including his most recent works.

Peter Illingworth came to art later in life and is self-taught. Using materials recycled from daily life, he makes sculptures, woodworks and paintings which explore his personal views on matters of a political, social and religious nature. Many of his pieces use bicycle parts the avid cyclist scraps from his own bikes.

Illingworth was born in Toronto in 1948. He moved to the Arthur Township in 1974 and built a house on 50 acres of land where he and his wife, Barbara, raised two children and a flock of sheep.

In 1988 they moved to their current home in Mount Forest. There he began to spend much of his spare time in creative expression as a storyteller through art. In 1999, Illingworth’s was one of 150 works, out of 1500 submissions, included in The Eye of Experience, an exhibition held in Toronto honouring the United Nations International Year of Older Persons and juried by the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Illingworth is at heart a storyteller and hopes his work will stimulate comment and conversation among his audience.