JOHANNA PEGLER

In 2024, Johanna Pegler spent a year making one large painting inspired by a ‘Swan Scene’ glimpsed momentarily while out wandering the shore of the deep natural spring that is Whanganui’s Rotokawau Virginia Lake. According to the Chinese zodiac, 2024 is the year of the dragon, hence the name Pegler gave her painting. For three weeks in November, Year of the Dragon will be exhibited at the gallery in a room of its own as befits its singular status.

Pegler was born in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in 1965. After graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau in 1987, she spent 15 years living and painting at Waikawau Bay at the remote North Eastern tip of the Coromandel. In 2004, she was awarded the Sarjeant Art Gallery Tylee Residency and relocated to Whanganui where she has lived ever since. Pegler is recognised as a producer of mysterious, transporting paintings founded on a distinctive feeling for unsung aspects of her immediate environment.