Artist Reception: Saturday, April 6, 4:00–6:00 pm

As the exhibition title Rapture & Reverie suggests, Southern California artist Peter Halasz addresses highly evocative subjects such as nocturnal landscapes, atmospheric realms, moody still lifes, and sensual, haunting figures that exist solely within their own realm. Halasz slowly layers multitudes of thin wet-on-wet oil paint, allowing the imagery to gradually coalesce and become legible. These psychologically charged tableaus rendered in seductive tones of ochre, petal pink, and foggy gray, set a mood where the familiar world ends and a less finite one begins. Drawing from the diverse traditions of Baroque painting, 19th century French Realism, and California Light and Space, Halasz offers contemporary insight into seemingly traditional modes of representation.

"I looked for you at sunset but you weren't there. Nobody was. Not like it used to be--everyone lounging on the old wood benches, draped from street signs and scattered over the rocks, wild in the shorebreak... Making a plan for the night as the sun fell in the sea, left the sky smouldering... Seems like no one's around anymore. Heard you finally cashed it in, riding the Esco line some bright Sunday. Just faded out, wrapped in your corduroy and safety pins. Wonder how many loops it took before somebody noticed you weren't actually there... Remember that tune you used to hum? What was that song? Something about method airs off janky plywood jump ramps, g-turns in the rain, fastplants in the keyhole... It was a strange melody, half written and hard to make out- like tuning into alien transmissions, gaunt from a million light years traversing the abyss. Attenuated, wavering just at the edge of audible. Meandering, silent, then suddenly PRESENT, clarion in dulcet tones--an incandescent ascendence... If I tilted my head just right and leaned in at the correct time I'd catch a phrase or two. Oh, what were the words? What were the words again? Hard to say, really. I'll see you again though, of that I'm sure..." —Peter Halasz, March 2024

Nancy Toomey Fine Art