Peter Eastman

Current Review(s)

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Peter Eastman at SMAC Art Gallery

Peter Eastman at SMAC Art Gallery Cape Town

There is something rather heartening about the fact that the experience of an artwork can almost never be adequately substituted for by its documentation or its reproduction, the vast majority of which fails mightily at capturing the work which it supposedly represents. For anything deviating from two dimensions (ie performance, sculpture, video etc) this is an obvious point. But it is also applicable to drawing, painting and even photography. This was made clear to me in 2011 when I saw Roy Lichtenstein’s Whaam! (1963) at the Tate. Reproductions of the work never seem to reflect how thickly the dabs of paint have been applied, often with a sizeable kuif trailing off the canvas. In images, the work is usually interchangeable with the Ben-Day dotted pulp that it references.

08 May 2014 - 21 June 2014

Listings(s)

'Deep Chine'

Peter Eastman at SMAC Art Gallery Cape Town

Cape Town based artist, Peter Eastman has earned a reputation as an experimental painter, using a variety of techniques and media to constantly expand his practice. Eastman’s substrate of choice is aluminium, to which he applies amongst other things; chrome, enamel, resin, wax, graphite and oil paint – reworking, scraping, incising and profiling the surface to create unique paintings poised between representation and abstraction.

For Eastman, his surroundings and environment have a profound influence on his work.  Subjects are taken from lived interiors, cityscapes, studio views, family photographs and landscapes that are known to him. Eastman disassembles the image and reconstitutes it to form an entirely new picture which bears a vague semblance to the original, but for the viewer there is an uncanny familiarity and connection to the content, which is suffused with opaque moods and dreamlike memory. New shapes and forms emerge through the process of gradual fragmentation. Despite his ambitious and bold employment of base-colours in the new works, Eastman’s compositions remain mostly mono- or duo-chromatic. Subtle lines and shapes are articulated by thin ridges of paint or resin which disrupt the surface, giving the works dimension and complexity in relief. This allows for different views and interpretations depending on the light and angle from which the work is approached.

In the current digital age, where technology is widely accessible and various digital image editing programs allow for infinite forms of visual manipulation, the reconfiguration of images is widespread. It is possible to produce a myriad of special effects such as blasting, blurring, pixelating and other forms of distortion which new abstract painting often attempts to interpret or mimic, resulting in superficially seductive, ‘re-modernised’ imagery. However, these works lack some of the intangible qualities which lie at the heart of real painting. Peter Eastman’s paintings retain a painterly quality where the sensitivity, brushstroke, touch and feel of the artist are inherent to the work, thereby transcending the intriguing technical innovations which are in themselves original and distinct.

08 May 2014 - 21 June 2014

'Viewing room 1, 2, 3'

Ed Young, Uwe Wittwer, Jake Aikman, Kate Gottgens, Abrie Fourie, Peter Eastman, Simon Stone, Willem Boshoff, Sandile Zulu and Georgina Gratrix at SMAC ART GALLERY CAPE TOWN

SMAC Art Gallery | Cape Town presents a trilogy of viewing room showings curated around the themes of Typography, Architecture and Landscape.

Viewing room 1 | Typography | 15.07.14 – 02.08.14
- Willem Boshoff
- Georgina Gratrix
- Simon Stone
- Ed Young

Viewing room 2 | Architecture | 05.08.14 – 23.08.14
- Abrie Fourie
- Kate Gottgens
- Helen A Pritchard
- Sandile Zulu

Viewing room 3 | Landscape | 26.08.14 – 13.09.14
- Jake Aikman
- Ruann Coleman
- Peter Eastman
- Uwe Wittwer

15 July 2014 - 13 September 2014

'Life is Short'

Peter Eastman at Whatiftheworld / Gallery

In his new series of shadow paintings, Eastman has created a collection of silhouetted shadow portraits. The shadow by its nature is a form that is synonymous with metamorphosis, and in the case of Eastman's work it is a fleeting moment captured in the reflective painted surface, capable of evoking memory and self reflective interpretation in the viewer.

02 September 2010 - 02 October 2010