Piece description from the artist
The artist Peter Ivanoff is fascinated with time and space. His approach to art is at once in synch with the past and connected to the modern world. Ivanoff’s work mines ancient history but he also re-interprets some of his own works. The work, Skies of Blue is one such example. It gleans some elements from his early figurative drawings in which diffused figures occupy virtual (Al Held like) rectilinear spaces.
In this work, (from a Louis Armstrong Song, What a Wonderful World) there are recognizable elements from the urban environment, a cyclone fence, a cage like structure but also abstract discs and rectangles. It is often the task of the artist to unite contradictory concepts in unique and meaningful ways. The title, I See Skies of Blue is ironic, the subject may be de-humanizing, urban and industrial but the narrative is life affirming. It’s not so much about the world, but how one sees it.
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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