Piece description from the artist
From the series Painted Black
The Tubbs fire in 2015 was a devastating wildfire that the artist Peter Ivanoff experienced first hand. After touring the devastation, the artist became profoundly influenced by the new blackened local landscape. In reaction and to perhaps gain a sense of control, Ivanoff streamlined his approach to creating art by simplifying his materials and methods. From this point on for the next few years black seeped steadily into the artist’s work. Evident with-in the blackness, however are a variety of subtle shifts in tone, texture and surface. The collages in the Painted Black series are created with applications of washes of India ink with a mastery of the medium that is only possible to fully appreciate in the original works.
The collage, RV, created in 2016, is also an homage to Philip Guston. The artist Peter Ivanoff takes on the theme of racism and antisemitism in America. The whimsical cartoonish silhouette of a vehicle belies its darker content.
According to the artist, the work in concept, started out as a landscape with a mountain range on wheels as a portrait of America as a nation on wheels. It evolved into three flag waving hooded figures, (like Guston’s Klansmen) one with a protruding gun barrel, the artist Philip Guston experienced a lot of anti-Semitism in America, so much so that he changed his name from Goldstein to Guston. The title RV, (recreational vehicle) also brings to mind the German expressionist George Grosz. When he visited Southern California after WW2 he was horrified by packs of vacuous, self-absorbed vacationers and day trippers, gleefully driving down sun-drenched highways blissfully unaware of what had just taken place in Europe.
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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