Peter Halley, the acclaimed American artist celebrated for his geometric abstractions, has partnered with Avant Arte to release a new limited edition print entitled Rising High II.
The New York-based artist first rose to prominence during the 1980s, alongside fellow giants of the East Village scene, which included Jeff Koons, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, amongst others. Inspired by the work of Josef Albers and Piet Mondrian, Halley’s boxy compositions are largely made with fluorescent acrylic and Roll-a-Tex, an additive that emulsifies his work, applying the paint with a roller to rid the surface of the human hand. The stacked forms he creates is a subtle commentary on the heightened ‘geometricization’ of social space — an isolation associated to urban dwelling, characteristic of the barred windows in his paintings that allude to prison cells.
“I don’t think of my paintings as abstract, I sometimes use the word ‘diagrammatic,’” noted Halley in a past interview. “Back in the ’80s, what I wanted to do was to take the language of 20th-century abstract painting and use it to diagram the nature of space in contemporary society. So, the abstract square became an enclosed cell. If I put bars on the square, it became a prison. I connected these squares, that is, these prisons and the cells, with thick lines that I called conduits. I was trying to map the kind of highly geometricized space we live in.”
Produced in collaboration with the revered London studio, Make-Ready, Rising High II features silkscreen overprints including metallic shimmer, glitter, gloss varnish and gold leaf details that showcase a three-dimensional effect. For collectors looking to purchase, the artwork is limited to an edition of 40 and is available framed ($5,083 USD) and unframed ($4,400 USD) online only.
