(1981-2003 Stefani Schneider)
Early Career in Germany (1985-2001 under her married name Stefani Schneider)
After completing her Master of Education in Art and English at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (1978-1984) and private study with Professor Günter Dollhopf at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg (1989-1990), Peter established herself as a professional artist in Germany. Between 1985 and 2001, she created over 4,000 works including major series such as About Time (1992-2000) and sold widely, exhibiting extensively across Germany, Brazil, Poland, Great Britain, and Italy.
In 1992, she received two significant awards: the Fine Arts Grant for Emerging Artists from the City of Erlangen and the Special Award of the Lucas Cranach Prize. That same year marked the beginning of her most sustained body of work: the Books of Days series.
Main Oeuvre: Books That Consist of Days
The Books of Days (Tagesbücher) Series:
Since 1992, Peter has maintained a practice of creating accordion-fold artist books. For the first 365 daily, and after that when a day was special, and important. Through the years these folded object were created and exhibited under several sub titles like: The Ups and Downs of the Days 1994, Preserved Time 1995, Chronos and Kairos 2000 and what she calls now Naveganças(Portuguese: “navigation/wandering”) 2025 and 2026. As art historian Prof emeritus .Dr. Frank Günter Zehnder observed in 1995, these are “books that consist of days, not books written on days.” Each piece doesn’t record what happened on a particular day—it IS that day, made physical through watercolor, gouache, monotype, collage, and mixed media.
The Books of Days series was born from practical necessity: as an artist constantly traveling for exhibitions, residencies, and international symposiums, Peter needed a practice that could travel with her. Each book (33cm × 70cm open, 35cm × 23.3 cm folded) fits in a suitcase—literally “art to carry.” Yet they also transform monumentally: in 1994, at her first major exhibition at SESC Pompeia in São Paulo, Brazil, she exhibitsd 16 of these smaller objects, as well as four large vertical accordion books, creating an architectural installation that demonstrated the books’ dual nature as both intimate portable objects and sculptural interventions.
By 2001, when Peter immigrated to Canada, she had created 350 Books of Days pieces in Germany.
Immigration and the Canadian Years (changing her name to her maiden name Stefani Peter, 2002 – Present)
Immigration forced difficult choices. From over 2,000 works, canvases, book objects and works on paper still in her studio, Peter could bring only 800 pieces to begin her new life in Canada. Among them were 150 carefully selected Books of Days—the works she deemed most essential to her identity as an artist.
In 2001, she was invited as a Visiting Artist to Malaspina Printmakers Society in Vancouver, an experience that led to her decision to remain in Canada. She became a Permanent Resident in 2003, the same year she founded Aion Art Gallery, which provides cleared artwork to the film and television industry while supporting the artist community with her TV Art Director partner.
For 21 years, Peter lived and worked in Canada as a permanent resident, creating prolifically in studios in Vancouver, Tsawwassen, and now Burnaby. During this time, she created over 100 additional Books of Days pieces, documenting her life between countries, between citizenships, between belonging and displacement.
In October 2024, after Germany changed its restrictive citizenship laws to allow dual citizenship, Peter became a Canadian citizen – part of the first wave granted this status. After 23 years of creating as a non-citizen, she could finally claim both identities: German and Canadian, born there and home here.
International Practice and Recognition
Throughout her career, Peter has, thanks to her international artist network an active international collaborative exhibition schedule, with recent appearances in Brazil, Portugal and Germany. She has participated in numerous international artist symposiums and exhibitions through Ponte Cultura (Brazil: 1996, 2006, 2017, 2019, 2022; France: 2014, 2025) and other organizations across Europe and South America.
Her work is held in public collections including Museo Dragão do Mar (Fortaleza, Brazil), City Museum of Stoke-on-Trent (UK), and municipal collections in Nuremberg, Erlangen, and Kronach, Germany.
Recent Evolution: Modular Meditation Pieces
In 2024-2025, Peter’s Books of Days have evolved toward geometric abstraction with bold circular forms designed as modular meditation pieces. These works can be reconfigured and displayed in multiple ways—flat, vertical, sculptural—creating different visual experiences for contemplative engagement. This evolution reflects her ongoing exploration: How can the portable book continue to transform? How can art made to travel also invite stillness?
Creative Practice
Peter works across painting, drawing, and three-dimensional artist books, using acrylics, watercolor, gouache, monoprint, photography, and hand-folded structures. Her two-dimensional practice—ranging from abstract canvases to intimate works on paper—informs the visual language of her accordion-fold books, where each page becomes part of a sequential composition with color and form flowing across connected surfaces. These works function as both intimate portable objects and sculptural installations. Her four-decade painting practice and recent exploration of Human Design principles have deepened her understanding of creative rhythm and cyclical practice.
The Portable Practice: Art to Carry
At the heart of Peter’s practice is the concept of portability—not just physical, but conceptual. throughout her 40 year long career she always asked herself: What am I willing to carry? What matters enough to transport? What defines me, when I only bring what fits?
Over 32 years, across three continents, through immigration and citizenship, displacement and homecoming, the Books of Days have been her constant companions. They fold small enough to carry. They open to reveal accumulated time. They hold 32 years of creative life between their pages.
Now comprising around 500 pieces, the Books of the Days series represents one of the longest sustained artist book practices in Canada—and a meditation on what it means to finally, at 70, be home.
Studio Fiona Locke, São Paulo, Brazil, 1995. Work in progress during artist residency/symposium.
5 Navegança pieces opened on the stone table in Ponte Cultura Founder Marianne Stüve’s Garden June 2025
Double-folded Naveganças, September 2025. Studio Franziska Uhl, Kunice, Poland. Ceramic teapot by Franziska Uhl.
Supporting the Artist Community
Beyond her studio practice,she founded Aion Art Gallery in Vancouver in 2003, a specialized art rental service for the film and television industry. Aion provides cleared artwork to productions, solving the complex copyright challenges that film sets face when decorating with art.
Through Aion, she supports fellow artists by placing their work in film and television productions, while her own work appears under two distinct identities: fine art pieces under her name, Stefani Peter, and commercial work created specifically for set decoration under the name Artwerk.
This dual practice has enriched her understanding of how art functions in different contexts—from contemplative gallery spaces to the dynamic world of storytelling on screen—while allowing me to maintain the integrity and focus of my personal fine art practice.
For film industry inquiries: Aion Art Gallery – Cleared Art for the Film Industry
CONTACT
Studio: 3879 2nd Avenue, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Email: info@stefanipeter.com
Instagram: @stefanipeter
FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES
High-resolution images, exhibition history, and press materials available upon request.