Peter Driver is an artist and writer. Working from his studio on a farm in West Berkshire, he occupies himself with printmaking, painting and scouring the local landscape for signs and wonders: a variety of responses to the beauty and brokenness of living in the world. He makes things, or makes things happen, primarily for aesthetic reasons; often incorporating pop culture, memory and natural forms to ‘sing into the void’ about the climate and nature crises and the common good.
His diverse output includes presenting his experiences of long-distance walks, negotiating the ambiguities of text in a woodcut print, and wrestling many variables into cohesive paintings. He exhibits and collaborates widely and supports early-career artists through mentorship, advice and exhibition opportunities.

SELECTED SOLO/DUO EXHIBITIONS/PROJECTS
2024: Widdershins Walk: round the edge of Reading (with Geoff Sawers) - walking project

2024:  Georgics: visual poems on farming (with Ingrid Jensen), Information Centre, Leominster

2018:  A Walk For Stanley - solo walking project

2017:  Imagined Futures, K6 Gallery, Southampton

2017:  For Such a Time as This, OHOS, Reading

2016:  A Gaol Ballad and Other Assorted Love Songs (with Amy-Rose Holland), OHOS, Reading

2016:  WordUp! (with Robert Fitzmaurice), multi-site collaboration for Reading's Year of Culture

2015:  ecologies of optimism and dissent, Jam Factory, Oxford

2015:  Driver Walks The Chalk - solo walking project, Hampshire

2014:  I'm glad you're alive! (with Lydia Heath), OHOS, Reading

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS/PROJECTS
2024:
SFSA Painting Open, No Format Gallery, London

Layers, The Department Store, Brixton

It Rose And It Fell, Terrace Open, London

Lick, Safehouse 1, London

Condition Blah Blah Blah, Turbine House, Reading

2023: 
Do Not Swallow, Safehouse 1&2, London

Five Years Time, Alfred Arcade, Southampton

Where The Two Worlds Meet, Reading Biscuit Factory

2022: 
Inbetweeners, Chapel Arts Studios, Andover

Artists for Ukraine, 571 Oxford Road Gallery, Reading

Newsprint Open 2022, Three Works, Scarborough

2021: 
Relational Beings, Chapel Arts Studios, Andover

Newsprint Open 2021, Three Works, Scarborough

2020: 
ArtAgainstCovid, online, in aid of grassroots non-profits in the North West

2019:
The Arborealists and Guests: the art of trees, Turbine House, Reading

silence | absence, Broad Street Mall, Reading

Let Us Dissent, SPUDworks, Sway

Triangulations, OHOS, Reading

2018: 
Only The Sunny Hours: contemporary photography with a KODAK Brownie 127, OHOS, Reading

Print & Process, Hartley Library, University of Southampton

2017: 
Winter Print Salon, ONCA Gallery, Brighton

2015: 
Dancing with Architecture, The Point, Eastleigh

CHALK, Winchester Gallery, Winchester

Meeting Point, Crypt Gallery, London

2014: 
Tabula Rasa, Bargehouse, London

Platform Graduate Award, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth

Transmediale Festival, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

Someone & Something, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth

EDUCATION
MA Fine Art, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, 2015 (distinction)

BA (Hons) Fine Art, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, 2014 (first class)

Foundation in Art and Design, Cambridge School of Art, 1981-2

CURATING/ORGANISING

2023:  Boiling Point Artist Collective: Practice Post Art School, 571 Oxford Road Gallery, Reading

2021:  Beyond Otherness, 571 Oxford Road Gallery, Reading

2017:  Fire & Water, OHOS, Reading

2015:  Print as a Verb, OHOS, Reading

PUBLICATIONS

Widdershins Walk: Round the Edge of Reading (with Geoff Sawers), 2025, Peculiarity Press

A Walk For Stanley, 2019, buy direct

Thirteen Days in Spring: walking in relation to the kindness of strangers, 2012, Blurb.com

RESIDENCIES

2021  In-Situ, Lancashire, micro-residency at Brierfield Mill, Pendle District.

2018  Block_Chain>The Power of Two, Online residency with Chapel Arts Studios, Andover

2013 Basing House archaeological dig, Hampshire: artist in residence

AWARDS

2023:  Arts Council England - project grant for Boiling Point Artist Collective at 571 Gallery, Reading

2021:  Arts Council England - Developing Your Creative Practice grant

2021:  Arts Council England- project grant for Beyond Otherness at 571 Gallery, Reading, (on behalf of OpenHand OpenSpace)

2015:  Arts Council England - grant for the arts to develop March for Optimism, Andover

TEACHING

Teaching Fellow in Fine Art, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton 2016-2022

OTHER POSTS HELD
Associate Artist - The Jelly, Reading 2020 - present

Member - UNPRIMED artist collective

Charity Trustee - Berkshire Ornithological Club, 2023 - present (Charity number 1011776)

Charity Secretary - Open Hand Open Space Limited, 2021-2023 (Charity number 1196484)

Studio/Associate Artist, OpenHand OpenSpace, Reading 2013-2023

Company Secretary - Greenbelt Festivals, 2011-2018 (Charity number 289372)

Associate Artist - Chapel Arts Studios, Andover 2015 - 2024