Peter Millett

Sanctuary

May 7 - June 27, 2020

Greg Kucera Gallery is pleased to announce our tenth one-person exhibition of work by Seattle artist, Peter Millett. The artist’s newest works are ablaze with color.  Welded in steel, the recent sculptures are powder coated in a great variety of primary and secondary colors, even some quite surprising tertiary colors such as aqua green, golden yellows, or even beyond that in a hot-rod metallic blue.

While color has often been an integral part of Peter Millet's work, it has also been monochromatic in certain bodies of work such as the rusty finish on the steel work of his previous show or the burnished metallic surface of his bronzes. Or even the natural wood tones in cedar or fir.  

New, in this show, is his complex use of asymmetry when symmetry was often a hallmark of his sculptural work. Here a rhythmic arrangement of various irregular triangles provide a musicality that seems perfect for this moment of loss and sorrow. These works are a perfect antidote to the international malaise the world so easily feels right now. There are also several bright white works that might read as either elegiac or as a suggestion of the sublime. Some sculptures will sit on irregular wood pedestals while others will be wall-mounted or displayed on shelves.

“This body of work is a joyride of animation and color. I am exploring the flip side of the mass and weight of my work in Corten steel. This new work expresses joyful energy with open shapes and color. They have little sense of mass or weight; no inside or outside, just pure gesture. These colorful open shapes are new forms celebrating possibilities and movement. The triangle shapes drum out a strong rhythm while the colors create the melodies. The shadows blend in the harmonies. The air and space around the work is the other voice in this duet of sculpture and space. The semi-transparent mesh pieces even more radically merge the inside/outside dialogue with shadow and light. The shape and the space are one. ”

— Peter Millett

Work in exhibition