Gary Petersen

Spin Out

2016

In this acrylic on canvas painting, Petersen continues his exploration of colorful, hard-edged geometric and linear forms engaged in layered, dynamic spatial play. The artist’s bright and exuberant color sense belies the sophistication of his compositional arrangements: irregular geometric forms overlap one another with rhythmic energy, punctuated by linear elements which zip across the surface, articulating larger masses of color while providing movement and direction. Petersen starts his work with an underlying painting of irregular lines, grids, rectilinear forms and attenuated geometries arranged in nesting patterns and diagonals. He then uses a thin wash of white to partially obscure the underpainting. This substructure becomes the architecture onto which he builds up his third layer of forms, which dance across the surface and engage with the elements underneath in a complex and dynamic dialogue of color and form. Petersen’s process throughout is an intuitive one as he creates multiple spatial layers in his paintings while disrupting a sense of overall coherence, as puzzle-like and moveable lines and forms appear, recede or disappear.

This painting is included in the his current solo exhibition at the gallery and will be available for delivery after October 16, 2016.