Reception: Friday, June 1, 5:30–7:30
(Santa Fe, NM) Admired critically for what have been called the “ingenious discontinuities” in his paintings, Sammy Peters is a second-generation abstract expressionist whose career has been spent far from the movement’s center in New York. He has become a quiet star of contemporary abstract painting over a distinguished career that now spans more than 40 years. Actually, he prefers the word “architectonic” rather than “abstract” to describe his work with non-objective form: his particular brand of genius resides in a unique capacity to develop a sense of unified structure within the flux of lively movement he coaxes from shape.
As the title Silent Metronome for an exhibition of his newest paintings suggests, this simultaneity of structure and movement imparts an idea of rhythm and musicality to the viewer as the complex arrangements of line, pattern, shading and shape are absorbed. The exhibition runs June 1 through June 24 at LewAllen Contemporary in downtown Santa Fe. The artist will be feted in public opening reception at the gallery on Friday, June 1, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m
Peters’ paintings attract the eye with their unsettling but alluring combinations of muted color blocks, twisting and looping thick lines, and patches formed by stripes of startling color. The sensuous surfaces of his canvases—a complex interplay of expressive brush work, scribbles and drips, along with collaged papers and fabrics—add to the artwork’s intrigue, suggesting an intricate, intelligent game of mysterious activity. His making of these surfaces has been likened to a “thought process” with the more painterly areas suggesting turmoil and the flatter areas associated with serenity.
Peters is regarded as one of the most important contemporary painters of the American heartland. His rootedness in middle America finds expression in his work’s strong sense of organic authenticity. Although strong in their power to elicit emotional response, the paintings retain a more meditative sensual quality relative to the overt expressionism sometimes associated with the New York School of abstract painters. As one writer has observed, Peters’ paintings have an organic sense to them that is a mirror of nature’s eternal experimentation.
The new body of work that comprises Silent Metronome is distinguished with strong brush work, collage elements, bright hues and gorgeously wrought finishes. The canvases are filled with marks the artist has crafted as though inscribing primal symbols; they evolve into a complex articulation of some kind of deeply reflective psychic process.
Born in 1939 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Peters attended the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville and Little Rock University as a student of art and design. His success in regional competitions such as the Delta Annual in 1962 inspired him to continue painting even as he studied drama at the Arkansas Arts Center, then spent a year with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. His work has been shown in many competitive and invitational group exhibitions and in solo exhibitions around the country. Awards he has earned include the Mid-America Arts Alliance/NEA Fellowship in 1992, a MacDowell Fellowship in 2000 and fellowships with the Vermont Studio Center in 2001 and 2003. His work is included in numerous important corporate and public collections as well as many private ones.
Silent Metronome will run from Friday, June 1, through Saturday, June 24. A public reception for the artist will be held on opening day, Friday, June 1, 5:30-7:30. Normal gallery hours in the summer are 9:30 to 5:30 Monday through Thursday, 9:30 to 6:30 Friday and Saturday, and 11:00 to 5:00 Sunday. For further information, please contact Diane Kell at (505) 988-8997 or [email protected].
