Gugger Petter
View Show Images | Artist statement

September 2- October 2, 2009

“In “Female Head/Madonna,” the female image is invariably cropped and, to a certain degree, liberated from any sacred connotation. Unlike a traditional icon, no specifically occult reference is intended.”

-Gugger Petter

Danish artist Gugger Petter interweaves newspaper to create dynamic surfaces of “controlled chaos.” While Petter subtly highlights her surfaces with paint, the bright colors interspersed throughout the work are from the newspaper itself. As a young artist living in Italy and Mexico, Petter regularly encountered traditional Christian depictions of the Virgin Mary. Petter’s current body of work, Female Head/Madonna, expands on those influences and takes inspiration from Byzantine icons and mosaics. From a distance, the large-scale depictions are fluid and painterly, but upon closer inspection, the highly textural surfaces are revealed.

Petter’s work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums both in Europe and in America, and her list of private collectors, permanent collections and commissions is extensive. This is her third exhibition with Andrea Schwartz Gallery.

Gallery will be closed: September 5-7, September 19, and September 28