PETER WAITE: The Cincinnati Series opens at Carl Solway Gallery, April 24, 2015

PETER WAITE

The Cincinnati Series

Opening reception: Friday, April 24, 5:00 – 8:30pm

The artist will be present.

Exhibition continues through August 1, 2015

Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday 9:00-5:00; Saturday noon-5:00pm

Free admission

Carl Solway Gallery presents The Cincinnati Series, new paintings by Peter Waite.  Based on observations made during two extended visits to the city in the last year, the paintings by the Connecticut-based artist focus on a range of architectural sites.  They include iconic landmarks such as Union Terminal, the Roebling Bridge, Great American Ball Park and more obscure locations such as the interior of an abandoned school, the facades of 19^th century tenement buildings and some of the surprises found in Cincinnati’s legendary, subterranean levels.

Waite paints in acrylic on rigid panels.  He omits the human figure from the scene in order to place the viewer in the position of witness and observer.  In this series, he places a new emphasis on added base coats and layers of fluorescent colors, which offer contrast to his muted palette. Lines of these bright colors, reminiscent of those emanating from laser levels, zip across the surfaces of the paintings.  Bright splashes of color around the edges resemble the way film looks when burning in a faulty projector. These layers add a dimension of abstraction to his otherwise representational work.

For 30 years, Peter Waite has depicted public sites, usually architectural in nature, such as monuments, stately homes, prisons, industrial landscapes, public housing and ancient temples.   His primary interest is in the intersection of personal and social memory.  Waite is an avid traveler, and for him being there and experiencing a location first hand is of crucial importance.  London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Florence and New York City are some of the major cities that have captured his attention.  He uses snapshots, memory and sketches done on the scene as source material.

Peter Waite was born in North Adams, Massachusetts and now lives and works in Glastonbury, Connecticut.  He holds a B.F.A. from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford and an M.F.A from the Art Institute of Chicago.  His paintings are widely exhibited and collected. His work can be found in numerous collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut; NASA, Washington, D.C.; and Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts.  Waite is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.  Carl Solway Gallery presented a solo exhibition of his paintings in 1994.