Peter Halley and Avant Arte Partner on Geometric Print
Limited to an edition of 40.
Peter Halley, the acclaimed American artist celebrated for his geometric abstractions, has partnered with Avant Arte to release a new limited edition print entitled Rising High II.
The New York-based artist first rose to prominence during the 1980s, alongside fellow giants of the East Village scene, which included Jeff Koons, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, amongst others. Inspired by the work of Josef Albers and Piet Mondrian, Halley’s boxy compositions are largely made with fluorescent acrylic and Roll-a-Tex, an additive that emulsifies his work, applying the paint with a roller to rid the surface of the human hand. The stacked forms he creates is a subtle commentary on the heightened ‘geometricization’ of social space — an isolation associated to urban dwelling, characteristic of the barred windows in his paintings that allude to prison cells.
“I don’t think of my paintings as abstract, I sometimes use the word ‘diagrammatic,’” noted Halley in a past interview. “Back in the ’80s, what I wanted to do was to take the language of 20th-century abstract painting and use it to diagram the nature of space in contemporary society. So, the abstract square became an enclosed cell. If I put bars on the square, it became a prison. I connected these squares, that is, these prisons and the cells, with thick lines that I called conduits. I was trying to map the kind of highly geometricized space we live in.”
Produced in collaboration with the revered London studio, Make-Ready, Rising High II features silkscreen overprints including metallic shimmer, glitter, gloss varnish and gold leaf details that showcase a three-dimensional effect. For collectors looking to purchase, the artwork is limited to an edition of 40 and is available framed ($5,083 USD) and unframed ($4,400 USD) online only.
