Peter Halley
Galerie Forsblom Stockholm
February 22–March 31, 2019
Opening in the presence of the artist February 21, 5–7pm
Galerie Forsblom is pleased to present an exhibition with American artist Peter Halley – his first in Sweden. This exhibition, a large-scale installation encompassing four rooms of the gallery, will include eight new paintings accompanied by floor-to-ceiling digital prints.
Peter Halley deploys the language of geometric abstraction in his paintings to explore the organization of social space in the digital age. For over 30 years, he has used a limited set of geometric iconic elements, ‘cells’ and ‘prisons’ connected by ‘conduits,’ to describe not only spatial movement in postindustrial society, but also the flow of information generated by computer networks. In recent decades, his work has branched out to encompass architectural-scale installations that include paintings, algorithmic flowcharts, digital prints, and other diverse media.
In Galerie Forsblom’s first three rooms, Halley has covered the walls in floor-to-ceiling digital murals, comprised of abutting, multicolored prison-images arranged in irregular grids. In the main gallery, seven large-scale paintings are hung on a background of reflective metallic foil embossed with a repeating pattern of cartoon explosions.
Peter Halley lives and works in New York. His recent solo exhibitions have included installations at the Lever House Art Collection, New York (2018) the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2016), as well as exhibitions of his paintings at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California (2015) and the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Saint-Étienne, France (2014). Halley’s works can be found in numerous public collections, including the Tate Modern, London, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, the CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, among others.
In the mid-90s, Halley served as publisher of INDEX magazine, which published interviews with emerging and established figures working in a range of cultural fields. From 2002 to 2011, Halley served as director of the graduate painting program at the Yale School of Art. Galerie Forsblom has been representing Peter Halley since 2006. He has previously exhibited at Galerie Forsblom in Helsinki in 2014, 2009 and 2006.