Riotous lines of color weave in and out of the paintings of Peter Stephens, in joyful rhythm. The work grows from Stephens’s intense interest in fundamental forces of nature, the laws that determine the structure and behavior of matter, and in the physics behind the mechanism of pattern generation.
Stephens begins his acrylic paintings on panel with an underlying grid of various flat color blocks which provide a spontaneous, interchangeable surface to explore color relationships and interactions. He then applies row after row of intensely colored lines to form grids of woven colors bouncing in and out of many multicolored layers. Colors are not preordained, but applied intuitively as the tapestry unfolds, and are all applied by hand with precise but unmechanical discipline. The result is that geometry, line and color interact to produce visual depth and optics to pull three-dimensional space out of a flat picture plane, challenging our perceptions.
Peter Stephens earned a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1981 and has since shown his work nationally and internationally. He has held solo exhibitions at Rivalry Projects, Buffalo, NY (David Richard Gallery, New York, NY and Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY among many others. His work has been placed in private and public collections worldwide and is in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum, and Burchfield Penney Art Center. He lives and works in Buffalo, NY.
Peter Stephens is represented by Kathryn Markel Fine Arts which has two gallery locations in New York City.