Opening November 17, Xippas Contemporary Art will present a new series of works by Peter Halley from 2011.
This American artist, one of the most distinguished painters of his generation, is a historical figure and legitimate successor to the legacy of American abstraction.
Peter Halley made a name for himself in the mid 1980’s, initially in New York and subsequently worldwide, as one of the foremost figures of geometric abstraction.
The use of Day-Glo, Roll-a-Tex acrylic colours and stucco on large formats with subtle effects, the repeating pattern of cells and circuits, create an immediate visual impact specific to Peter Halley’s work.
His iconography of abstract shapes articulates a narrative of diagrams referring to architecture and social organization.
The units of cells, originally designed as prison cells, linked by linear conduits, are networks mapping contemporary urban existence. Pop and Minimalism are obvious references when considering the works graphic indexing of technology, consumer culture, and the media.
For Peter Halley, geometry is both a metaphor of society where the labyrinth of urban areas is characteristic of social structures, and simultaneously refers to a computer’s organization of information processing.
Beyond his paintings, Peter Halley’s critical and theoretical output includes articles and essays written since the 80’s, the founding of the « Index » critical review in 1996, as well as his influential role as the Director of the Painting and Printmaking department of the Yale University School of art.
Peter Halley was born in New York in 1953. He studied at Yale University and the State University of Louisiana. He lives and works in New York and teaches painting at the Yale University School of Art, of which he is the director of the Painting and Printmaking department. Retrospectives and solo shows have been presented in museums such as MoMA, New York, the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the London and Boston ICA, the CAPC in Bordeaux, as well as at numerous other museums in Europe, North America and Japan.
November 16, 7pm, Peter Halley will give a lecture at the Haute école d’art et de design – Geneva, in the framework of the Talking Heads’conferences programme. In conversation with Yann Chateigné, critic, curator, responsable of the HEAD-Geneva Visual Arts department / bd James-Fazy 15 1201 Geneva.
