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Peter Gynd: Markers of Space and Time
June 21 – July 5, 2024 Space 776 - New York |
Peter Gynd: Markers of Space and Time
June 21 – July 5, 2024
Space 776
37-39 Clinton St
New York, NY 10002
Tuesday - Sunday, 12-6 pm
Opening Reception: Friday, June 21, 6–8pm
Artist Talk: Sunday, June 23, 3pm
Markers of Space and Time is a solo exhibition of new oil paintings by Peter Gynd.
Known for his expressive and abstracted landscape paintings, Peter Gynd’s work is often a ‘long look’ at a particular subject. This ‘long look’ manifests as a body of work in which Gynd explores the same scene and its objects through varying degrees of vantage points and abstractions.
This series—collectively titled Markers of Space and Time--centers around one particular view of a constructed lake at an urban park, examining its ‘natural’ and architectural elements.
For this show Gynd has focused on Hines Lake at the Clay Family Eastern Glades in Houston’s Memorial Park. Partly based in Houston, Gynd has been returning to the 100 acre award-winning Nelson Byrd Woltz designed park throughout the spring of 2024 to create plein air paintings.
Gynd views the act of painting as a form of meditation and the presentation of his plein air work mirrors this sentiment. The altar-like format of the book-sized paintings on cedar shelves brings a scale of intimacy and introspection to the paintings. Gynd will also often add small objects—such as coins, rocks, or found jewelry—to the shelves along with the paintings as offerings or memento’s.
The paintings range in scale from these intimate 10x8 inch plein air oil-on-board works to 4x3 foot gestural and abstracted studio paintings on linen and canvas.
Gynd’s palette for the series pulls heavily from art history and personal history. Influences can be seen from artists such as Emily Carr, Diego Rivera, Bob Thompson, Kerry James Marshall, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Giotto, A.Y. Jackson, and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. Gynd’s personal history as an artist pops up in the form of the bold pink, cobalt blue, and deep yellow brush strokes; a nod back to favorite color combinations from his time as a glassblower—a process which continues to influence the way he approaches painting.
The title of the show, Markers of Space & Time, refers to the ever present architectural structures that are featured in each painting—and throughout the actual park. Mostly rendered as bright pink and red objects in the bottom right corner of the scene, they resemble perhaps the large footings for an ancient structure or the time-softend ruins of a past civilization. Gynd chooses to view them though as obelisks, monoliths, menhirs or axis mundi: Markers of a sacred ground and its connection to the past and to the heavens.
The composition, with the monolith-like object in the bottom right corner, is also reminiscent of Henri Matisse’s “The Piano Lesson”, 1916, on view at MoMA. Matisse’s painting features a metronome rendered in a similar fashion to Gynd’s menhirs, a visual anchor in the painting marking the rhythm and passage of a specific moment in time.
* *
Peter Gynd is an artist who grew up amongst the coastal rainforests of western Canada and is known for his paintings that pull influence from nature.
Gynd’s artistic practice has centered around an exploration of landscape for the last 16 years. “There is a connection between ourselves and all things of the natural world,” he states, “a connection which keeps me coming back with more questions on belonging, impact, and our role within it.”
Gynd studied old masters oil painting and classical sculpture at the Vancouver Academy of Art and as an apprentice to his mother, painter Ursula Medley, before pursuing a BFA in Glassblowing from the Alberta College of Art and Design and an MFA in Painting from Brooklyn College. From 2011–2022 Gynd was based in New York City. He held a studio in Bushwick, exhibited throughout the city and was also the director of Lesley Heller Gallery.
Gynd’s most recent body of work has centered around observational oil paintings made on locations in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. These colorful and optimistic paintings abstract the landscape and reflect on the role art has as a form of meditation. Recent solo exhibitions include at the qathet Art Centre in Canada and the SPRING/BREAK Art Fair in LA. Peter Gynd was a 2022 teaching fellow at CUNY’s Brooklyn College and is currently based between Houston, Texas and qathet, British Columbia, Canada.
June 21 – July 5, 2024
Space 776
37-39 Clinton St
New York, NY 10002
Tuesday - Sunday, 12-6 pm
Opening Reception: Friday, June 21, 6–8pm
Artist Talk: Sunday, June 23, 3pm
Markers of Space and Time is a solo exhibition of new oil paintings by Peter Gynd.
Known for his expressive and abstracted landscape paintings, Peter Gynd’s work is often a ‘long look’ at a particular subject. This ‘long look’ manifests as a body of work in which Gynd explores the same scene and its objects through varying degrees of vantage points and abstractions.
This series—collectively titled Markers of Space and Time--centers around one particular view of a constructed lake at an urban park, examining its ‘natural’ and architectural elements.
For this show Gynd has focused on Hines Lake at the Clay Family Eastern Glades in Houston’s Memorial Park. Partly based in Houston, Gynd has been returning to the 100 acre award-winning Nelson Byrd Woltz designed park throughout the spring of 2024 to create plein air paintings.
Gynd views the act of painting as a form of meditation and the presentation of his plein air work mirrors this sentiment. The altar-like format of the book-sized paintings on cedar shelves brings a scale of intimacy and introspection to the paintings. Gynd will also often add small objects—such as coins, rocks, or found jewelry—to the shelves along with the paintings as offerings or memento’s.
The paintings range in scale from these intimate 10x8 inch plein air oil-on-board works to 4x3 foot gestural and abstracted studio paintings on linen and canvas.
Gynd’s palette for the series pulls heavily from art history and personal history. Influences can be seen from artists such as Emily Carr, Diego Rivera, Bob Thompson, Kerry James Marshall, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Giotto, A.Y. Jackson, and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. Gynd’s personal history as an artist pops up in the form of the bold pink, cobalt blue, and deep yellow brush strokes; a nod back to favorite color combinations from his time as a glassblower—a process which continues to influence the way he approaches painting.
The title of the show, Markers of Space & Time, refers to the ever present architectural structures that are featured in each painting—and throughout the actual park. Mostly rendered as bright pink and red objects in the bottom right corner of the scene, they resemble perhaps the large footings for an ancient structure or the time-softend ruins of a past civilization. Gynd chooses to view them though as obelisks, monoliths, menhirs or axis mundi: Markers of a sacred ground and its connection to the past and to the heavens.
The composition, with the monolith-like object in the bottom right corner, is also reminiscent of Henri Matisse’s “The Piano Lesson”, 1916, on view at MoMA. Matisse’s painting features a metronome rendered in a similar fashion to Gynd’s menhirs, a visual anchor in the painting marking the rhythm and passage of a specific moment in time.
* *
Peter Gynd is an artist who grew up amongst the coastal rainforests of western Canada and is known for his paintings that pull influence from nature.
Gynd’s artistic practice has centered around an exploration of landscape for the last 16 years. “There is a connection between ourselves and all things of the natural world,” he states, “a connection which keeps me coming back with more questions on belonging, impact, and our role within it.”
Gynd studied old masters oil painting and classical sculpture at the Vancouver Academy of Art and as an apprentice to his mother, painter Ursula Medley, before pursuing a BFA in Glassblowing from the Alberta College of Art and Design and an MFA in Painting from Brooklyn College. From 2011–2022 Gynd was based in New York City. He held a studio in Bushwick, exhibited throughout the city and was also the director of Lesley Heller Gallery.
Gynd’s most recent body of work has centered around observational oil paintings made on locations in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. These colorful and optimistic paintings abstract the landscape and reflect on the role art has as a form of meditation. Recent solo exhibitions include at the qathet Art Centre in Canada and the SPRING/BREAK Art Fair in LA. Peter Gynd was a 2022 teaching fellow at CUNY’s Brooklyn College and is currently based between Houston, Texas and qathet, British Columbia, Canada.