 Untitled (More Light, No More), n.d. Oil on linen, 14" x 18" Peter Gallo Goodbye Picasso Freight + Volume is pleased to present its first solo exhibition of paintings, assemblages, and works on paper by Peter Gallo. As suggested by the show's title, lifted from David Douglas Duncan's book by the same name, "Goodbye Picasso" underlines a basic principle of Gallo's practice: a punk-rock attitude towards cultural authority. For example, a copy of Duncan's photo essay on Picasso's twilight years at his 15th century chateau at Vauvenargues (a book given to Gallo by his parents on his 14th birthday) is transformed into a drawing surface upon which the artist erases the eyes. Drawing from a wide range of texts and images, Gallo utilizes simple formal structures and gestures - channeled through an exquisitely lyrical aesthetic sensibility - in an often frank and confrontational fashion. In the tradition of punk, neo-punk, Lettrism and Situationism, Gallo steals the words and images of others for his own ends; snippets from Roland Barthes, Freud, Mondrian, Tony Shafrazi's famous vandalization of "Guernica" (Kill All Lies), and queer pornography - all turn up on occasion, mixed in with lyrics gleaned from Gallo's favorite music: The Cocteau Twins, Dusty Springfield, The Magnetic Fields, or Joy Division (Gallo is a Joy Division diehard). Yet, for all its critical or confrontational energy, Gallo's seemingly apathetic scrawl or brushstroke across a found object or yard sale painting conveys something ultimately profound and positive, including his own abiding love for Modernist painting. Peter Gallo has all the (slow) moves of a neoslacker: an apparent disdain for materials; an alert scavenger's attitude toward culture; an eye for the poignant frailties of the vernacular; and an occasionally breath-taking ability to evoke issues of great import... A partial inventory of Gallo's materials would include dental floss, toothpicks, a towel, string, wire, French vermilion oil paint, buttons, toilet paper, spackle, bric-a-brac, a bedsheet, picture frames, amateur sculptures, and patterned fabrics.These are usually mixed with snippets of found text or references... that allude to the likes of Spengler, Nietzsche, Kant, Pasolini, and Mondrian... He adjusts his raw materials just enough to allow them to speak more clearly, either of themselves or of his response to them (James Yood writing for Artforum). Gallo does not decide in advance nor impose an order on what he writes or draws... To finish is fatal, because one never finishes, and if one does, it is inevitably wrong, incomplete, insufficient, unclear. In his practice Gallo reaches a resolution of sorts that, no matter how momentary it might be, is the conclusion his art reaches in the face of the ineffable. His intelligence is like that of an athlete. What Gallo does is determined at any moment by the situation; he does what needs to be done (Robert Buckeye from dytrtmnt). Peter Gallo lives and works in Hyde Park, Vermont. He has had solo shows at White Columns (White Room), New York (2005) and the Wendy Cooper Gallery, Chicago (2004). Gallo is a doctoral candidate in art history at Concordia University in Montreal, where he is authoring, "Medicalisation and its Discontents: The Artist as Case History." He also works as a psychiatric social worker in a rural health care agency in Northern Vermont, and has been active in the Grass Roots Art and Community Efforts (GRACE) in Hardwick, Vermont. In addition, he has organized numerous exhibitions and has contributed criticism to "Art in America" and "Art New England", among others. His work has recently been discussed in the New York Times, Artforum and Art in America. Exhibition: November 1 - December 3, 2005 Gallery hours: Tues-Sat 11 am - 6 pm Freight + Volume 542 West 24th Street USA-New York, NY 10011 Telephone +1 212 898 8700 Fax +1 212 989 8708 www.freightandvolume.com |
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