Perfectionism: A Trick of the Eye
Curated by Becca Pelly-Fry
July.16 - September.16.2020
Charley Peters in her London Studio
Charley Peters
Born in 1973 in Birmingham, Charley Peters lives and works in London. Peters holds a PhD in Fine Art from De Montfort University. Starting from an interest in the legacy of the hard-edge, her work considers the manifestation of abstract language in the context of contemporary visual media. Exploring the spatial potential of the painted surface through oppositions of colour, structure and technique, Peters’ meticulously made paintings are developed intuitively in layers with no pre-conceived understanding of a resolved ‘image’. Works begin by laying down fields of colour before the support’s surface is divided into distinct compositional areas, which are treated as individual aspects of a whole painting. Successive layers of paint become progressively more refined and work continues until a resolved formal relationship is established between individual painted elements. The works exist in several different temporal registers, where areas of repeated geometric information slow down the experience of both making and viewing the more impulsive, gestural areas of painting; Peters uses the logic of hard edged principles to structure an often illogical creative process.
Charley Peters, TYT, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 120 cm x 150 cm, 48 in x 59 in
Charley Peters, SB\2M2H, 2020, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 140 cm x 175 cm, 55 in x 69 in
Charley Peters, CTO // LTD, 2019, acrylic and spray paint on linen, 40 cm x 55 cm,
16 in x 22 in
Characteristically in her work Peters uses graphic, hard edged shapes to delineate and control space on the painting’s surface; she is interested in the tension between a perceived meaninglessness – in that these motifs don’t literally represent anything in the real world – and a more metaphorical or symbolic presence onto which ‘meaning’ is placed. The material and illusionary properties of paint are important to the artist as a means of interrogating experiences of reading space, substance and abstract form in contemporary visual culture, in which the once radical symbols of formal abstraction have become aestheticised and familiar signifiers of the dematerialised post-digital image world.
Charley Peters, IOMH.AAP, 2020, acrylic and spray paint on aluminium panel, 50 cm x 60 cm, 20 in x 24 in
Charley Peters, UFN /\ THT, 2019, acrylic and spray paint on linen, 40 cm x 55 cm,
16 in x 22 in
Charley Peters, ..WYLEI..FIF.., 2019, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 120 cm x 150 cm,
48 in x 59 in
EXHIBITIONS:
Saatchi Gallery (London), Fold Gallery (London), Hauser and Wirth Showroom (London), London Art Fair (with Eagle Gallery, London), Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art (Coventry), Southampton City Art Gallery (Southampton), Z20 Sara Zanin Gallery (Rome), Yantai Art Museum (Yantai), National Museum of Gdansk (Gdansk), Art 2 (New York) and Ambacher Contemporary (Munich).
Peters has contributed writing about abstract and contemporary painting to online and print publications that include Instantloveland, A-N, Abstract Critical and Turps Banana, where she is a member of the editorial board.