Peter Burega
"All The Stars In The Sky"Opening Reception Thursday March 3rd, 6:00 - 8:00
March 3 – 31, 2022
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.”
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
