Biography

Peter Burega - Artists - Pryor Fine Art

Teaming with frenzied descriptions of energy abstracted, Peter Burega’s paintings relate a dense organic abyss.  His own cosmology is presented in work that bears witness to a number of intriguingly balanced dualities:  organic/linear, man-made/natural, order/chaos, structured/amorphous.  Much like the work of the British romantic landscape painter J.M.W.Turner, landscape and nature serve as potent points of departure for Burega’s work.  It is often the spaces where man meets the natural environment that captivate Burega, who actively photographs natural forms, such as water, bubbles, and waves and dilapidating man-made structures, like bridges, to work from when in the studio.  The final imagery is a mingling of this documentation and Burega’s own physically exercised psychology.  As a result, his working process at times mirrors the man/nature relationship—he describes it “…as a give and take [and] increasingly confrontational.” 

CV

Born – Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1965

Piano Performance – Royal Conservatory, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1984

BA – McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1984-1987

Juris Doctorate – Whittier College – Los Angeles, California, 1987-1991

Comparative Law – University of Florence – Florence, Italy, 1990

To support his current working habits, Burega prefers working on wood panels of laminate birch and solid ash sides.  These strong, stable panels record and endure Burega’s aggressive and subtractive manner of applying and removing layers of oil paint with trowels, palette knives, and electric sanders.  The physical and psychological merge and do battle in his paint application, which he notes as being “…visceral […] intuitive and reactive.”  

Burega’s earth-tone palette of grass greens, ocean blues, and fiery yellow-oranges allows each painting to acquire elemental and biological significance.  Change and movement, the hallmarks of life, dominate the work by the appearance of engaged, layered mark making that at times mimic scarring.  The power in the work derives from this sublime tone—the paintings appear as lovely storms that entice us and perhaps also make us vulnerable.

Indeed destruction or decay is at the core of Burega’s physical process and perhaps also his interest in and concern for natural systems.  These complex, captivating, and finely crafted paintings thrust us into an apocalyptic landscape, wherein we are both everywhere and nowhere at once.

Burega’s work is held in several private collections, including Sotheby’s and Goldman Sachs and has been featured at prominent art fairs, including Palm Beach Art Fair and Art Basel in Florida.  Burega is self-taught; he actively exhibits in California, Florida, New Mexico, Georgia.  Peter Burega is a Canadian artist splitting his time bwtween St. Martin, FWI, Atlanta GA and Santa Fe, NM.

Solo Exhibitions

Pryor Fine Art - Atlanta, GA – January 2013, 2014, 2015

Hunter Kirkland Contemporary - Santa Fe, NM - October 2011, 2012, 2013

Pryor Fine Art - Atlanta, GA – April 2013

Craighead Green Gallery - Dallas, TX – February 2013

Pryor Fine Art - Atlanta, GA – April 2012

Melissa Morgan Fine Art - Palm Desert, CA – February 2012

Craighead Green Gallery - Dallas, TX – December 2011

Pryor Fine Art - Atlanta, Georgia - March.  2011

McLarry Modern - Santa Fe, New Mexico - October, 2010

Coda Gallery - Palm Desert – March, 2010

Bennett Street Gallery - Atlanta, Georgia – February, 2010

Meyer East Fine Art - Santa Fe, New Mexico – August, 2009

Bennett Street Gallery - Atlanta, Georgia – February, 2009

Meyer East Fine Art - Santa Fe, New Mexico – October, 2008

Coda Gallery - New York, New York – April, 2008

Coda Gallery - Palm Desert, California – February, 2008

Bennett Street Gallery - Atlanta, Georgia – November 2007

Gallery 225 - Santa Fe, New Mexico – October 2007

Coda Gallery - New York, New York – April 2007

Mulry Fine Art - Palm Beach Florida – February 2007

Art Basel - Miami, Florida – January 2007

Palm Beach 3 - Palm Beach, Florida – January 2007

Ventana Fine Art - Santa Fe, New Mexico – October 2006

Coda Gallery - New York, New York – May 2006

Coda Gallery - Palm Desert, California – March 2006

Palm Beach Art Fair - Palm Beach, Florida – January 2006

Mulry Fine Art - Palm Beach, Florida – November 2005

Ventana Fine Art - Santa Fe, New Mexico – October 2006

Long Beach Museum of Art - Long Beach, California – May 2005

Coda Gallery - New York, New York – May 2005

Ventana Fine Art - Santa Fe, New Mexico – April 2005

Coda Gallery - Palm Desert, California – March 2005

Ventana Fine Art - Santa Fe, New Mexico – Oct.  2004

Coda Gallery - New York, New York – April 2004

Coda Gallery - Palm Desert – February 2004

Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art - Boca Raton, Florida – January 2004

Waxlander Gallery - Santa Fe, New Mexico – Oct.  2003

Venice Art Walk - Los Angeles, California – May 2003

Long Beach Museum of Art - Long Beach, California – April 2003

Coda Gallery - New York, New York – April 2003

Coda Gallery - Park City, Utah – February 2003

Coda Gallery - Palm Desert, California – Dec. 2002

Waxlander Gallery - Santa Fe, New Mexico – 2002

Venice Art Walk - Los Angeles, California – May 2002

Coda Gallery - New York, New York – April 2002

Coda Gallery - Palm Desert, California – Dec. 2001

Ruth Bachofner Gallery - Los Angeles, California – Dec. 2001

Long Beach Museum of Art - Long Beach, California – May 2001

Venice Art Walk - Los Angeles, California – May 2001

Selected Collections

Goldman Sachs – London, England

Grisanti,Brown, LLC – New York,New York

Bank of Georgia – Atlanta, Georgia

Reinsure – New York, New York

PepsiCo – Dallas, Texas

Pizza Hut Corp. – Los Angeles, California

Bank of New York – Hong Kong, China

Stafford, Frey, & Cooper, LLP – Seattle, WA

Auberge du Soleil Hotels

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