Peter Burns: Forests of the Night
Simchowitz Gallery, Pasadena
June 1 – July 6, 2024
Wave, 2022
Oil on canvas
16.14h x 16.14w in / 41h x 41w x 2d cm
© Peter Burns, courtesy Simchowitz Gallery
Simchowitz Gallery presents “Forests of the Night”, a debut solo show by artist Peter Burns. The exhibition is on view at the gallery’s newest location - Hill House, Pasadena.
Hailing from the picturesque landscapes of Ireland, Peter Burns’ oil paintings contain elements of sculpture and collage that emanate mythic tales. With this body of work Burns deftly navigates the interplay of light and dark, while seamlessly exploring the complexities of scale and perspective. Evoking the enchantment of fairy tales, Burns successfully transports viewers to fantastical realms.
Spellbinding and occasionally unsettling, ‘Forests of the Night’ captures the imagination by weaving together the familiar and the unfamiliar. In the painting Wave, 2022, a minuscule rowboat battles against the fierce embrace of an enormous wave, whose foamy tendrils extend like arms and eerie eyes seem to observe. Despite the tumultuous sea, the golden hue of the sky imbues the scene with an unexpected sense of safety.
Peter Burns intertwines religion, classical and science fiction through a dislocation of scale and the creation of exotic landscapes. In Abraham and Isaac, 2022, two diminutive figures mounted on animals ride alongside an ominous canyon, flanked by a disproportionately massive mountain scape painted in a mesmerizing array of pink, green, and yellow hues, under a sky aglow with cosmic illumination. The tactile quality of the art, along with its almost three-dimensional layers of paint, draws you in, inviting closer inspection. Peter Burns has an MFA in painting and a BA in sculpture from the National College of Art & Design, Dublin. He has exhibited in solo shows and group shows internationally and is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner grant.
SIMCHOWITZ HILL HOUSE, PASADENA
Pasadena, CA 91107
