Piece description from the artist
In the wake of the Tubbs fire in 2015, a devastating wildfire that the artist Peter Ivanoff experienced first hand (it started a half mile from his home). Fueled by strong wind the inferno spread overnight 20+ miles to destroy parts of the city of Santa Rosa.
Surrounded by this new blackened landscape the artist became profoundly influenced by these increasingly more frequent events. “The New Normal” is a stark reality we are all facing in the West. In reaction and perhaps to re-gain a sense of control, Ivanoff streamlined his approach to creating art by simplifying his materials and methods (collage and India ink). From this point on for the next few years
black seeped steadily into the artist Peter Ivanoff’s work.
Slowly color began to come back into the artist Peter Ivanoff’s work
We’re Still Here, 2018 is one of these the works on paper. After the Tubb’s fire Ivanoff toured the burned areas around his home. It was winter and skeletons of blackened trees,
hulks of cars with melted engines, suburban tracts of foundations where there was once a thriving neighborhood and miles of denuded landscapes made a lasting impression.
As in the title, We’re still Here, cold and bleak as the work may appear there
are hints of color in this lifeless faintly lit winter landscape. A muted green, a deep
blue, harbingers of spring, perhaps just around the corner.
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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