Piece description from the artist
In much of the work of the artist Peter Ivanoff an on-going theme is mobility, both physical and spiritual.
“As an artist born in Wales, of Russian and Greek heritage, possessing an American education, Ivanoff explores human nature and myth making through his fascination with American culture and the need for myth in a work of extremes.
He does this by combining found crafted objects to invent new forms that examine the relationship between one human being and another, between man and the earth and finally between man, god and the cosmos”.
Susan Isaacs, Washington review
The painting, Refugee, in Ivanoff’s unique way, focuses on the journey of the refugee. There are many disparate elements at play in this compelling but strange bio-morph as it steps forward into a desert landscape.
The concept of uniting apparent opposites to form a whole can be difficult to demonstrate.
In the painting Refugee there is a lot more than opposites. In surrealist tradition the central figure is a hybrid of many things- a road turned upside-down, a cartoonish leg with foot and a testicle (or is it pregnant)-and it is deftly stepping into the foreground. The artist Peter Ivanoff continues to keep us guessing and somehow he has pulled this one off.
Peter Ivanoff spent most of his professional life, initially as an art director in advertising, then as a concept artist and designer
for advertising and marketing. In addition to making a living as a commercial artist,
throughout his career he has maintained a studio practice.
As a architecture student he was introduced to painting by the artist Gilbert Steed, (a color consultant for Bocour paints and a student of Hans Hoffman). He studied and was introduced to European Modernism by the photographer and painter, John Guttman, (a student of Otto Mueller) at SFSU. He also studied Life Drawing and Anatomy at the Art Student's League.
He earned his B.A. from SSU and an M.F.A from MICA (a highlight of which was his association with the late Salvatore Scarpitta). Currently, he lives and works in Palo Alto, CA.
A native of Wales, California-based artist Peter Ivanoff’s sculpture is all about going places. Crutches, ladders, plumbing fixtures, discarded furniture, and wheels deliver the message in his objects and installations. Driving this narrative, Ivanoff’s interest is in
our relationship with technology.
After the recent and ongoing wildfires, political turmoil and other disasters, his recent drawings, collages, and paintings have taken on an environmental and political shift. In these troubled times Ivanoff is presenting a much darker impression of California than for example, the artists David Hockney or Wayne Thiebaud.
Ivanoff’s techniques are purposely simple; collages are black India ink cut-outs
on Bristol and the paintings and works on paper are painted in acrylic.
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