Met Opera #6 Painting

Peter Vahlefeld's visceral artworks combine a rigorous, process-based practice, continually rethinking the possibilities of painting. He approaches his canvases with the idea of building rather than painting them. The act and idea of »building« encapsulates his multi-tiered approach to each artwork that unfold in an intricate, unpredictable interaction of layers and excess—a constant juggling of paint, prints, fabrics, and effect to enhance the capacity of the surface. He assembles, layers, molds, adds to or takes away, thereby giving way to the objectness of the work. Vahlefeld’s primary consideration is not a rigorous plan or strategy for a picture, but, instead, a reflection of his own formal and sensory response to the material as he builds each composition. Perfectly poised between European and American traditions (Art Informel, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art), the paintings draw their actuality from the collision between the visual codes of mass media and the subjective traces of painterly expression. They combine complexity into a visual richness that is neither figurative nor abstract. Peter Vahlefeld was born in Tokyo, Japan and grew up in Hong Kong and Hamburg. He has participated in a variety of solo exhibitions, art fairs, and venues such as Neumeister Fine Art Auctioneers (Munich), Sotheby's (Vienna), Fritz Hansen (Denmark), Allianz Art Collection and Poliform Interior Design. His work can be found in private and corporate collections throughout Europe, the United States and East Asia. Peter Vahlefeld was featured on the German television channel ZDF, and currently has a studio in Berlin and Munich. You are welcome to visit me anytime at one of my studios. Please send me an email (with an eye to the future so that I can plan) to see the real thing—a sculptural take on painting—not a flat experience.