Peter Spanjer (b. 1994, Nigerian) currently lives and works in London. UK. Peter graduated with a BA degree in Fashion Promotion from the University for the Creative Arts, UK in 2015 and completed an MA in Contemporary Art Practice: Moving Image at the Royal College of Art, UK in 2020. His work is often framed around-but not limited to-the idea of resistance: resisting the emotional stereotypes placed on Black men; resisting the need to perform his Blackness to others, and thereby allowing room for self-exploration, which he extends to an audience as a piece of visual art.
Solo exhibitions include Salon, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL (2025); SWIM, Cob Gallery, London, UK (2024); Flood of Memory, Shoreditch Arts Club, London, UK (2023); In Order for it to Change, Screw Gallery, Leeds, UK (2021); What do you desire, inter.pblc, Copenhagen, Denmark (2021); The Triangle that you Feel on your Tongue, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2020).
Group exhibitions include ASVOFF Film Festival, Dover Street Market, Paris, France (2024); Movements from the Margins, Diasporas Now, Turner Contemporary, UK, (2024); Where the Wild Roses Grow, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Görne, Germany (2023); Diaspora Now - Reference Points Lates, 180 Strand, London, UK (2023); A-Z - The Voice of a Tempest Act III, Somerset House Studios, London, UK (2023); Testament, Goldsmiths CCA, London, UK (2023); The London Open 2022, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2022); Between Somewhere and Nowhere (with Jack Bidewell), Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2022); Facing the Sun, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Görne, Germany (2021); TRANSMISSIONS, Season 3 (online), Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (2021); Tomorrow: London (online), White Cube, UK (2020); Royal College of Art / Slade Graduation Show, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2020); An Exhibition, Public Notice, London, UK (2020); London Grads Now, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2020); 20:20 (Moving Image Shown at Piccadilly Lights), Circa, London, UK (2020); Togetherness, Assembly Point, London, UK (2020); A-Z: Graze on the UNKNOWN, PAF Festival, Olomouc, Czech Republic (2019).
Highlights and Collections
Peter Spanjer was awarded the Cob Gallery Award Residency in 2024 and shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2025 for his film SWIM.