PETER BUREGA
AVAILABLE ARTWORKS
“My work can sometimes appear to be a contradiction. My development has always emerged from conflict, that effervescent energy fighting any attempts at control and creating a certain tension between the grid that I score onto each of my panels and the chaos that my abstractive process produces.
My work always begins with photography. I travel extensively and take thousands of photographs, and it is the spaces where man meets the natural world that captivate me. Photographs of natural forms, such as waves contrasted with manmade structures like bridges, continue to inspire me when I’m back in the studio. As I sift through my photos, I create matrices of images to work from. The beauty of my grid system is that I can include multiple images, abstracting and superimposing them in a single piece.
My paintings blend documentation of the real world with my own physically exercised psychology, and are often described as containing dualities: organic/linear, manmade/natural, ordered/chaotic, structured/amorphous. I believe that these dualities represent my striving for calm and balance in my life, and that the juxtaposition of my aggressive, abstractive energy with structured form consistently results in my most successful work.
To support my visceral energy I paint on wood panels of laminate birch with solid alder sides. These strong, stable panels record my aggressive and subtractive manner of applying and removing paint. The physical and psychological come together in this process, resulting in paintings that can be at once percussive and soothing.”
2018 Abbozzo Gallery, Toronto, ON
2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Pryor Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2011, 2012, 2013 Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2013 Craighead Green Gallery, Dallas, TX
2012 Pryor Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2012 Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA
2011 Craighead Green Gallery, Dallas, TX
2011 Pryor Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2010 McLarry Modern, Santa Fe, NM
2010 Coda Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2010 Bennett Street Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2009 Meyer East Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2009 Bennett Street Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2008 Meyer East Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2008 Coda Gallery, New York, NY
2008 Coda Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2007 Bennett Street Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2007 Gallery 225, Santa Fe, NM
2007 Coda Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Mulry Fine Art, Palm Beach, FL
2007 Art Basel, Miami, FL
2007 Palm Beach 3, Palm Beach, FL
2006 Ventana Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2006 Coda Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Coda Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2006 Palm Beach Art Fair, Palm Beach, FL
2005 Mulry Fine Art, Palm Beach, FL
2006 Ventana Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2005 Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
2005 Coda Gallery, New York, NY
2005 Ventana Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2005 Coda Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2004 Ventana Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2004 Coda Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Coda Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2004 Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art, Boca Raton, FL
2003 Waxlander Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2003 Venice Art Walk, Los Angeles, CA
2003 Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
2003 Coda Gallery, New York, NY
2003 Coda Gallery, Park City, UT
2002 Coda Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2002 Waxlander Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2002 Venice Art Walk, Los Angeles, CA
2002 Coda Gallery, New York, NY
2001 Coda Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2001 Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2001 Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
2001 Venice Art Walk, Los Angeles, CA
“Burega’s abstracted renderings of the natural world as it intersects with the built environment reflect the seething energy that fuels his need to examine truths both mundane and profound—and he approaches his work with an honesty and passion that are, to say the least, intense.”
– “Chaos and Control in the Work of Peter Burega”,
Trend Magazine, Fall 2013-Spring, 2014
“They may imply something chaotically expressionistic, but (Burega’s) works couldn’t be farther from the blunt gesturality of Action painting. Rather, they radiate a confidence and sense of completeness that we usually only see in nature or works by Old Masters.”
– ‘THE’ Magazine, March 2012”
“Ruins, angular structure, houses, churches and architectural layers combine with external environments. Internal presence of consciousness leads this interplay revealing the emotion, thought (and) insight below the surface.”
– Albuquerque Journal, August 2009
“Peter Burega’s powerful paintings are deep studies in color and geometry. They beautiful, but with a bruise here a scratch there, a scrape, a cut, a depth, a luminosity, an intensity, a look not only in the way Burega’s brain views the world, but how he processes (it).”
– Focus Santa Fe, August 2008
“Burega’s mercurial nature and obsession with process turn out increasingly thoughtful and wildly expressive, and ultimately sophisticated pictures.”
– “Process Makes Perfect” – Art + Culture, Winter/Spring 2006
“ . . . (A)rtist Peter Burega has established a signature style – tactile paintings whose surfaces comprise layers of oil, wax, and glazes and which smolder with raw energy. An ethereal radiance seems to emerge out of the churning voids of red, brown, and black in Burega’s paintings.”
– “Into the Void” – Southwest Art, October, 2005
“He begins with landscapes, and then instinct and emotion take over – a visceral and daring process that leads to Abstract Expressionist oils on board . . . (l)ight remains the protagonist of his work, manifesting in Burega’s subconscious and ultimately beaming a in Burega’s paintings.”
– Palm Desert Magazine, Spring 2005
“In the Periodic Chart, the elements of matter, such as hydrogen or oxygen, react to each other to produce certain formations found on earth and [in] space. Burega takes these designs in combination with terrain and dreams to create his paintings.” “Working from memory and dreams, he creates landscapes that capture the light hitting a leaf in Burega’s paintings.”
– “Emotive Landscapes” – Art Talk, Nov/Dec 2004