Nathan Peter
06 Nov 2014 - 10 Jan 2015
NATHAN PETER
Tiffany
6 November 2014 - 10 January 2015
Travesía Cuatro is presenting the first solo exhibition by Nathan Peter (Minneapolis, 1978) in Madrid.
The works in Tiffany undertake an exploration of the possibilities of the conventional materials of painting. The actual physical tension exerted by the canvas in order to
create a flat painterly surface, for example, is one of many material properties of painting in this investigation. If this factor is altered the flatness vanishes and it becomes a three-dimensional object more akin to sculpture than painting. Peter experiments with tension by means of a physical engagement with the material, lending manual work a critical importance that gives his pieces a tactile quality.
Paintings bound together with straps speak to the artist’s interest in balancing the extremes of fragility and brutality in one object. The force applied to the canvases
deforms them, and a similar contrast can be seen in the columns that appear to be porous and flexible, contradicting their iconographic meaning as a symbol of support and solidity. Likewise, they also question the vertical form of a rolled painting, whose content is concealed, only allowing a view of its exterior. All the works are the outcome of an accumulation of layers, something equally visible in the pieces that show remains of paint among cuts of aluminium and tape. The simultaneity of manifold fragments in a single composition mirrors Peter’s quest for the essence of the materials, at once a process of distillation and of dissection, whose goals are to understand the complexity of something through cuts and divisions, until arriving at a reduction to the simplest elements, and thus acquiring an overall insight into what is under scrutiny.
The organic workings of the studio are evident in the pieces on display. The working space imposes irregularities and imperfections that gradually construe a narrative of working as an act and as a process, and not simply as a means to an end. The permanence of the final object contains the movements, thoughts and actions that
enable its very existence; Peter wishes to transform this into a sense of presentness in his works through touch. This in turn involves a challenge as it forces the artist to come up with forms of translation capable of communicating the whole set of interactions that take place in the studio to the exhibition space.
Nathan Peter has had several solo shows, including Lemon at Schmidt & Handrup, Cologne; Manifold at PSM Gallery, Berlin or Selected Works at Kloster, Metten. He also has participated in group shows like Material World at the Denver Art Museum; 836Km at Scheublein Fine Art, Zurich; And / and at Another Space, Copenhagen; Boundary Waters at Schmidt & Handrup, Cologne; WAHREITEN at Bayer Kulturhaus, Leverkusen; or Translation Movement at Travesía Cuatro, Madrid y Guadalajara.
Tiffany
6 November 2014 - 10 January 2015
Travesía Cuatro is presenting the first solo exhibition by Nathan Peter (Minneapolis, 1978) in Madrid.
The works in Tiffany undertake an exploration of the possibilities of the conventional materials of painting. The actual physical tension exerted by the canvas in order to
create a flat painterly surface, for example, is one of many material properties of painting in this investigation. If this factor is altered the flatness vanishes and it becomes a three-dimensional object more akin to sculpture than painting. Peter experiments with tension by means of a physical engagement with the material, lending manual work a critical importance that gives his pieces a tactile quality.
Paintings bound together with straps speak to the artist’s interest in balancing the extremes of fragility and brutality in one object. The force applied to the canvases
deforms them, and a similar contrast can be seen in the columns that appear to be porous and flexible, contradicting their iconographic meaning as a symbol of support and solidity. Likewise, they also question the vertical form of a rolled painting, whose content is concealed, only allowing a view of its exterior. All the works are the outcome of an accumulation of layers, something equally visible in the pieces that show remains of paint among cuts of aluminium and tape. The simultaneity of manifold fragments in a single composition mirrors Peter’s quest for the essence of the materials, at once a process of distillation and of dissection, whose goals are to understand the complexity of something through cuts and divisions, until arriving at a reduction to the simplest elements, and thus acquiring an overall insight into what is under scrutiny.
The organic workings of the studio are evident in the pieces on display. The working space imposes irregularities and imperfections that gradually construe a narrative of working as an act and as a process, and not simply as a means to an end. The permanence of the final object contains the movements, thoughts and actions that
enable its very existence; Peter wishes to transform this into a sense of presentness in his works through touch. This in turn involves a challenge as it forces the artist to come up with forms of translation capable of communicating the whole set of interactions that take place in the studio to the exhibition space.
Nathan Peter has had several solo shows, including Lemon at Schmidt & Handrup, Cologne; Manifold at PSM Gallery, Berlin or Selected Works at Kloster, Metten. He also has participated in group shows like Material World at the Denver Art Museum; 836Km at Scheublein Fine Art, Zurich; And / and at Another Space, Copenhagen; Boundary Waters at Schmidt & Handrup, Cologne; WAHREITEN at Bayer Kulturhaus, Leverkusen; or Translation Movement at Travesía Cuatro, Madrid y Guadalajara.