PETER ALEXANDER NEW RESIN WORKS
PETER ALEXANDER NEW RESIN WORKS
SQUARES
“Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.” It’s a quote from Artforum Magazine written by Joseph Maschek, in 1971. It was a critique of an exhibit I was in with all the other boys at Pace Gallery. He took the position that there was this whole shallow, indulgent group of hip young dropout kids hanging out in Venice, California making fancy baubles for the rich. That seems to be very provincial.
I am a direct product of water and transparency. I want to be inside the water, have the sensation of being under water.
12/22/12 2012, urethane 60 x 60 in.
6/19/12 (big red square) 2012, urethane 60 x 60 in.
8/7/12 (big pink square) 2012, urethane 60 x 60 in.
7/12/12 (pink square) 2012, urethane 40 x 40 in.
7/19/12 (white with yellow square) 2012, urethane 40 x 40 in.
10/17/12 2012, urethane 40 x 40 in.
10/10/12 2012, urethane 40 x 40 in.
11/12/12 2012, urethane 40 x 40 in.
2/24/12 (flo yellow square) 2012, urethane 40 x 40 in.
6/1/12 (blue square) 2012, urethane 40 x 40 in.
DRIPS
I mean why do two blues, particularly when they look as if they’re the same, that it’s only under inspection that you realize they are not the same. Each one makes you behave differently.
Like what water does on coastlines when you fly above it, from incredible color or messy color to nothing. That itself doesn’t have any great meaning to me, but on the thin edge the whole piece becomes part of a greater thing, it becomes a door into something greater, not necessarily better. It addresses the room you’re in. It wants to become a part of the room by disappearing into it.
12/12/11 (large pale turquoise drip) 2011, urethane 46 x 41 in.
10/16/11 (large brilliant blue drip) 2011, polyester 46 x 41.5 in.
1/19/11 2011, polyester 18.75 x 16.125 in.
7/12/12 2012, urethane 7.25 x 9.75 in.
3/5/11 2o11, polyester 25 x 13.125 in.
12/5/11 (large flo yellow drip diptych) 2011, urethane left: 46 x 42 in., right: 46 x 42 in.
poppy 2011, polyester two panels: 26.25 x 20 in.
8/4/11 (untitled light blue diptych) 2011, polyester resin diptych: 25.5 x 44 x 1 in.
untitled 2011, polyester resin diptych: 25.5 x 44 x 1 in.
BARS
Fifty years ago I remember opening up a box of pastels, Schmincke pastels and it was layered in colors. I felt the excitement of those colors and the fact that color could be so rich and that just color could have such an effect, an emotional effect. When you looked at Payne’s grey and then the burnt sienna or then the white, you respond to it differently.
I can make any color I want and there will be another person out there who will respond to it the same way and an equal number for whom it will be nothing. If that’s the case, you choose a format and how to present the color. For example, in the boxes it was partially a carryover from what I did, the boxes don’t attract attention to the shape, what they do most is it’s a chunk of color that is specifically translucent or transparent or opaque. The bars were the same thing but less so because they echoed a standing man. They echoed me, standing up. They were thin and sort of vibrant.
pink 2009, urethane 60 x 5.25 x .75 in.
blue bar (colbalt) 2010, polyester resin 60 x 5.25 x .75 in.
black 2009, urethane 60 x 5.25 x .75 in.
green 2009, urethane 60 x 5.25 x .75 in.
oxblood bar 2010, urethane 60 x 4.5 x 1.5 in.
yellow 2009, urethane 60 x 5.25 x .75 in.
pale pink bar 2010, polyester resin 60 x 5.25 x .5 in.
teal bar 2010, polyester resin 60 x 5.25 x .5 in.
CUBES
Is there a perfect balance? The intention of the architecture of the molds for these works is that they all transition to nothing.
Learning the geometry and all that stuff, the architecture of it, but the biggest difference was that all of a sudden there was a discovery of the significance and ambiguity of color and what color can elicit. At the beginning I didn’t care about that but now I do. And this was a wonderful material for me to exercise those feelings.
velasco 2009, cast polyester resin 7.25 x 8.75 x 8.75 in.
alma 2009, cast polyester resin 6.625 x 8.75 x 8.75 in.
verona 2009, cast polyester resin 7.25 x 8.375 x 8.625 in.
calada 2009, cast polyester resin 7 x 8.625 x 8.625 in.
rosalind 2009, cast polyester resin 7.25 x 8.375 x 8.625 in.
prado 2009, cast polyester resin 7 x 8.625 x 8.675 in.
nyehaus 358 west 20th street new york, ny 10011 gallery@nyehaus.com | 212 366 4493 digital catalog created in conjunction with peter alexander: new resin works open march 7th 2013 special thanks: greneker & beto casillas for technical support photography: brian forrest design: kyle lamar