Sep 13

Peter Horvath

Peter Horvath is an assemblage and new media artist who has exhibited globally in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Japan, Hungary, South Korea, Czech Republic, Israel, Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Germany, and Mexico. His works remain in public collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Nion McEvoy Collection, and Art Gallery of Hamilton, Canada. Peter is represented by Galerie de Bellefeuille for which he has had several solo and group exhibitions to date. Other notable solo exhibitions include features at Hamilton Artists Inc., duel shows at Nicholas Metivier Gallery, and Stride Art Gallery, all in Canada. He has exhibited at prestigious museums such as the Whitney Museum Of American Art‘s Artport, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City, and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.

The large scale assemblage art consists of black and white photographic print outs from the golden age of entertainment including images of celebrities typically ranging from the 1940’s to the 1970’s. These pieces also include various personal and found print material stripped down into torn pieces and reassembled towards abstract collages integrating with the celebrity print outs on the canvas, all attached with adhesive. Peter also applies smears of various paint mediums with dark and neon colors, the entire process leaves a post-pop surface rife with an organized chaos of printed text and splitting tones.

These lively works communicate an appreciation towards vintage pop art aesthetics using contemporary techniques paying homage to the age of modernism. Celebrities depicted range from icons and giants of golden age entertainment such as The Beatles, The Rat Pack, David Bowie, Billie Holiday, Audrey Hepburn, Marylin Monroe, and Paul Newman. The assemblages combine vintage and retro nostalgic appeal with the appearance of torn posters one would see in a heavy urban center like Times Square in New York. These assemblages also combine expressionistic drips, smears, and sprays of bright neon colors typically incorporating hot pink and magenta.

Sophia (pictured above) is one of two varied editions depicting Italian actress Sophia Loren, an icon known for being the first actor to win an academy award for a non-English language performance in the film Two Women. Peter depicts the poster with bright red tears of print accentuated with an abstract landscape of hot pink spray paint below and a glared spray to Sophia’s right. Splatters of white paint dot the background as if Sophia stands in the dark pale, starlit night. Sophia can be regarded as a magical piece and probably Peter’s finest work in the chaotic yet integratively balanced composure of color contrasting bright and dark tones in a symphony which revolves around the print of Sophia Loren.

Peter Horvath is a titan of post-pop art surfaces. His elaborate deconstruction and reconstructions of improvised print materials move far past what a vast majority of artists have ever achieved with integrative collage techniques. Through careful urbanized appearing tears, he creates a sense as if the works created themselves, with the impression of several passer-bystanders sticking printed stickers onto posters and then tearing them off, creating a subway-poster aesthetic. Using vintage iconography with urban applications such as teared print, spray paint, and splatters causes these works to bridge the past with the present. Peter Horvath can be regarded as a restorer who replenishes appreciation towards an era of a simpler, innocent time detached from the digitally-enlocked realm of the contemporary age.