Peter Warren

Growing up in rural Ohio, Peter Warren spent more time at construction sites than art museums. This is evident in his tactile and structural objects. His central forms are epiphanies that turn into symbols, like new words. The backgrounds are littered with traces of time, meaning, and gesture, allowing the eye to wander. Formally trained as a printmaker, he used many layers of paint which he often sands back through to reveal past layers. In this push and pull of materials he crafts narratives exploring ideas of memory, chance, and fiction. The component layers become an entry for the viewer into the story and history of the work, His textures, colors, and patterns are neither abstract, nor representational, but literal objects with their own “life experiences” and identities that mimic our own. 

Warren focuses on craft, using a holistic approach to painting. Using woodworking and sewing techniques, he pushes the physical possibilities of his surfaces emphasizing narratives and chance interactions between materials. The thin profile canvases hug the wall and reveal their own construction. Worked from the inside out, his work challenges the notion of paintings as a two-dimensional media.