Rediscovering Black Portraiture

In Rediscovering Black Portraiture (2020-), begun during the Covid-19 pandemic, Peter reworks historical depictions of Black subjects with the help of domestic material culture.

With this body of work, Peter centres Black figures whose stories have previously been marginalised or erased. These new images address social and political concerns, but also originate from his own identity as a performer. Through reimagining representations from the 11th century to the present day, he dares viewers to consider how the global majority have and should be seen and portrayed.

His critical acclaim includes in-depth profiles by The Times, London’s National Portrait Gallery, Getty Magazine, Sky Arts and BBC News.

His solo exhibition Visible Skin: Rediscovering the Renaissance through Black Portraiture, funded by the Wellcome Trust, ran on King’s College London’s Strand Campus from October 2021 to February 2022. His work is featured in films commissioned by the National Gallery, London, the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.

An exhibition of Peter’s Rediscovering Black Portraiture work was on view at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery from April 2023 to September 2023. Peter’s work is held in the collections of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, located in Barbados' UNESCO World Heritage Property of Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison. For the 2024 exhibition Untold Lives: A Palace at Work, Historic Royal Palaces | Kensington Palace have commissioned him to produce a new Rediscovering Black Portraiture work. Existing work from the series will be exhibited in the renewed permanent exhibition at the Museum Hof van Busleyden, Belgium, from February 2024.

Find out more about the Rediscovering Black Portraiture (Getty Publications) book on the Book page.