Peter Peri: 17.11.2016 - 29.01.2017 Opening: Wednesday 16 November, 19:00h Curator: Florin ȘtefanThe Scarlet Letter

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Fabrica de Pensule, Henri Barbusse 59-61, Cluj www.spatiuintact.ro www.fabricadepensule.org Peter Peri: The Scarlet Letter

Questions for the artist by this coincidence between what I was painting and what I was reading, but I should stress that although the colours Florin Ștefan I’d like to bring into play our first meeting, at the are linked to specific characters in the charitable auction at Bátor Tábor, Budapest, an book, there is a continual shift between event which brings together every year artists, them, a kind of dialogic relationship and gallery-owners, art curators and collectors. Our it's that interplay of structure which I think meeting as painters took shape as a joint project, has relevance to the kind of painting I where I am the curator and director of SPAȚIU INTACT and you are the guest. What drove you to want to make. get involved in this project?

Peter Peri Triggering your critical sense and your lucidity We got talking and got on well, and I'd now. You are an important artist and that is certified by your works being part of the heard, of course, about the interesting collection. Where do you see your work between work coming out of Cluj. I thought that BIG REALISM and BIG ABSTRACTION? living here for a month could extend some of the important international links being I'm interested in the years when formed through Bátor Tábor and give me the historical avant-garde were first some insight into what was going on. experimenting with total abstraction and I was also thinking, hoping, that a new the profound anxiety that manifested itself studio environment might help produce in the profusion of methods and theories something unexpected in my work. that accompanied the abandonment of the figure and representation at that time. In my view these are structural I suppose that your stay in Cluj is (also) about regaining your identity. Let me just state here issues that continually play out between that you are the grandson of an illustrious representation and abstraction, the constructivist artist, László Peri, who was born in movement is alive and has nothing to do Hungary and later (via Berlin) emigrated to the with nostalgia. I sometimes see my work United Kingdom. Your stay in Cluj coincided with as related to a kind of mechanism opened the Hungarian Cultural Days; did this coincidence up by this movement but I'm not sure spark any interior reverberations that motivated you creatively? what you mean by 'BIG ABSTRACTION' etc. I thought the Hungarian Cultural Days were amazing in that they made enjoyment and What will be the parcours of the works you created entertainment out of a territorial history at SPAȚIU INTACT? that in other circumstances could very easily be the seed of conflict. But I guess I think they will remain a distinct group, the feeling of loss in Transylvania is still there's a kind of balance between them there in the Hungarian community so that I like, so it would be good to keep perhaps my sense of that melancholy was them together. slightly reinforced. And maybe that had an Solo Exhibitions influence on the work I made. Any artistic product is obviously mediated by language and thus slotted into communication. 2016 2011 Whereas communication is multiplication, or Almine Rech Gallery, London (Upcoming) ‘The Minimal Gesture’, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London How did you perceive Cluj, a strong cultural and maybe an amplification of the sense. What is 'Grafografo', Kinman Gallery, London ‘Magical Consciousness’, part of The Apparatus, project year artistic city, in the context of an ethnic “melting perceived here one way becomes something else for the 50th anniversary of Arnolfini, Arnolfini, Bristol, U.K. pot”? in London or Budapest. Can it be that this project 2014 you started and finalized in Cluj continues and 'The Reign of Quantity', Pearl Lam Galleries, Singapore 2010 shapes a future axis of communication and artistic ‘Art41 Basel’, Almine Rech Gallery, Basel, Switzerland A very strong artistic city yes. It's tangible collaboration? 2013 ‘Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines’, The Webster, Miami, FL in Cluj I think, you feel how serious and 'Last Family', Almine Rech Gallery, Brussels ‘Le Faux Miroir’, curated by Bob Nickas, Galerie Rodolphe motivated people are here and that's Janssen, Brussels I'm afraid I can't agree with your first 2011 invigorating as a visitor. The city seems assertion here... I'm a believer in art's ‘We, The Children Of The 20th Century’, Galerie Almine 2009 open to influence from outside though, capacity to transcend or at least disrupt Rech, Paris ‘Black Hole’, CCA Andratx, Mallorca, Spain despite its strong sense of self it's very ‘Classified: Contemporary British Art from the Tate language, but as far as my own work is 2010 Collection’, , London outward looking. concerned I guess that it will be received ‘Peter Peri’, Bortolami Gallery, New York ‘Modern Modern’, Chelsea Art Museum, New York differently in different places but I don't 2008 2008 When one knows the art and its author, the role really know about that. ‘Wave-Grain in the Wall’, Carl Freedman Gallery, London ‘Space Now’, Space Studios, London of the concept and of the theme becomes very ‘Back to Black: Black in Current Painting’, Kestner Hannover, obvious in your ars poetica. How was the series 2007 Hannover, Germany ‘ART NOW’, Tate Britain, London ‘Beyond Measure: Conversations Across Art and Science’, of works you painted during your stay in Romania It may be premature to ask, but I’ll risk the ‘Hole Here’, Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch, Berlin curated by Barry Phipps, Kettles Yard, Cambridge, U.K. born, since it’s a known fact that every trip question nonetheless: how did our artistic “adventure” shape you, also linked with your trip ‘…same as it ever was, Painting at Chelsea 1990 – 2007’, becomes a rite of passage and also a somewhat… 2006 curated by Clyde Hopkins, The Arts Gallery, London into the Transylvanian space? How did it stimulate exotic one? ‘Country 10’, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel your emotional intelligence? 2006 The concentrated nature of working to 2005 ‘How to Improve the World, 60 years of British Art - Arts ‘Overflow and Extinction’, Counter Gallery, London Council Collection’, , London produce an exhibition in a few weeks Yes, difficult to answer that so soon.. I've spoken about the fertile and progressive ‘Motion on Paper’, Ben Brown Fine Art, London seemed to bring to the fore something 2004 ‘TOUTES COMPOSITIONS FLORALES’, Counter Gallery, I'd noticed happening in my paintings at artistic atmosphere I experienced in ‘The Grey Point’, Counter Gallery, London London home - the colour red started to appear Cluj already, but I suppose that there's a certain silence that accompanies a Group Exhibitions 2005 in various forms as part of predominantly ‘A Violet From Mother's Grave’, curated by Matthew Weir, black or white paintings. residency when you're away from the 2016 Emily Tsingou Gallery, London At the same time I found Nathaniel familiarity, noise and routine of home 'Labyrinth(s)', Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong ‘We Disagree’, Andrew Kreps Gallery & Wrong Gallery, New which perhaps nourishes emotional York Hawthorne's 19th century novel "The 2015 Scarlet Letter" in a bookshop in Cluj. I'd intelligence. I also had the good fortune to ‘Drawing Biennial 2015’, London, UK 2004 read Hawthorne and enjoyed him before, visit other beautiful towns in Transylvania 'Zero: Infinite Possibilities', The Farjam Foundation, Dubai ‘Death & Magic’, Keith Talent Gallery, London 'Thoughts around the black square', Vasarely Museum, ‘East End Academy’, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London but it was probably the limited selection and see first-hand several of the wonderful painted monasteries there, Budapest, Hungary of English language books available that 'Dans un interieur, meubles, oeuvres murales et textiles 2003 partly made me buy it. In any case as which I loved. d'artistes', Almine Rech Gallery, Bruxelles ‘Red Mansion Prize’, Lethaby Galleries, London 'Ayan Farah, Max Lamb, Chris Succo & Peter Peri', Almine ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries’, Cornerhouse, Manchester you read the book what becomes quickly Rech Gallery, London & 14 Wharf Road, London apparent is that it is structured around ‘Private Property’, 357 Kingsland Road, London an interplay of black, white and red, 2014 ‘Show Case 2’, Lisu Gallery, London which form signs for the book's three 'Dans un interieur, meubles, oeuvres murales et textiles ‘Morbid Geometry’, Charlotte Street Gallery, London BIOGRAPHY d'artistes', Almine Rech Gallery, Paris major protagonists, and in the case of Cass Sculpture Foundation, Chichester, West Sussex, UK the heroine, red often appears as the Born in 1971, in London Lives and works in London scarlet letter A she is forced to wear on 2013 Public Collections ‘Drawing Biennial 2013’, Drawing Room, London her chest as a symbol of her corruption - Education Tate Modern, London her adultery. Hawthorne was interested 2012 The , London in Alchemy - black, white and red are 2002–2003 ‘Slow Looking : Contemporary Drawings’, Tate Britain, Victoria & Albert Collection, London MA Fine Art program, London UBS Funds, Switzerland the three main colours in its process that Chelsea College of Art and Design, London ‘Theatre of the World’, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland symbolise a progression. So I was struck Tasmania Arts Council of Great Britain Collection