Contact: John Addison, 505-992-0711
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, June 13, 2013
Santa Fe, NM – Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art presents two solo exhibitions, running concurrently, July 12 – August 11, 2013: Peter Millett’s Etudes and Chris Richter‘s Reveal. Opening receptions are Saturday, July 13, 5-7pm.
Peter Millett: Etudes
Peter Millett has spent the majority of his career making large scale metal sculptures that explore the abstraction of both figurative movement and geometry. However, many of these complex creations start from ideas hashed out in wood, small scale, with vibrant monochromatic color schemes. Chiaroscuro is pleased to present Etudes, a collection of small wooden sculptures for the wall or pedestal. Each piece has a dynamic compositional element that inspires visual interest and translates to the monumental, yet was made for an intimate view.
As Millett embarked on this body of work, the 3-D forms began to emerge, one after another, and reminded Millett of musical themes and variations. Chord patterns, melodic lines, and distinct rhythms came to mind as each piece had a relationship to another, a variation on a “riff,” a splash of color here, a repeated angle there. Each sculpture in the body of work played a part and contributed to the whole, yet stood on its own as a resolved piece, much like the structure of musical compositions with its many parts working together to from the whole. Thus, Etudes came to life.
Based in Seattle, Washington, Millett has exhibited widely over the past 30+ years and is an accomplished sculptor working in wood and steel. With immediate family in Santa Fe, Chiaroscuro become his home-away-from-home gallery and has developed a strong following for Millett’s work in the Southwest. This is Millett’s second solo exhibition at Chiaroscuro.
Chris Richter: Reveal
Layer upon layer of paint, finely tuned and sanded to release color under color, Richter’s paintings reveal and hide at the same time. They undulate between closely vibrating colors and very dark or very light expanses. They are contemporary abstractions “hung” on the structure of landscape. In the vertical markings you can feel trees in the forest; in the horizontal, you feel the distant horizon or the gently breaking line of a wave.
Conceptually Richter has, quote, “always been intrigued by an idea that there is a human condition in nature, particularly revealing in the relationships that trees might have with one another.” He explains, “This is my source of inspiration, and whether it be nature’s own forces or the human forces that impact nature, they open up another opportunity for me to explore. I feel I have tapped into some of nature’s most inherent characteristics to make this body of work, from beginning to end.”
Based in Santa Fe, Richter has been a full time professional artist since 2003 and has exhibited widely in both national galleries and museums. In the last few years his artwork has become decidedly more abstract. As he moved away from a more realist based rendering of nature towards an abstraction of color and form, remarkably he has held onto the structure and power of the natural world while developing his own visual language to engage with the viewer. Represented since early 2012, this will be Richter’s first solo exhibition at Chiaroscuro.
July 12 – August 11, 2013
Opening Receptions: Saturday, July 13, 5-7pm
Location: 702 ½ Canyon Road on Gypsy Alley, Santa Fe, NM 87501, 505-992-0711
High resolution photographs available upon request; call Heather Doyle at 505-992-0711 or email gallery@chiaroscurosantafe.com