Silhouettes, Soufflés & Succotash: Artist Peter Shire in Hong Kong

Description

Over the Influence presents Silhouettes, Soufflés & Succotash, an exhibition of new paintings, sculptures and design objects by legendary Los Angeles-based artist Peter Shire.

With an eye towards experimentation, the exhibition showcases Shire’s unique inventions. A world of colour and light derived from Shire’s over five-decade career utilising motifs both old and new, like familiar gradients and paint splatters, mixed with clean lines and curving neon.

A founding member of the Memphis Group—the Milan-based, post-modern, radical design collective—Shire is acclaimed for his instantly recognisable design that prioritises humour, whimsy and the quirky joys of human expression. For his first exhibition with Over the Influence, Shire is exploring a new series of neon paintings, alongside new works on paper, and never before seen ceramic and metal sculptures. These objects and paintings mimic the colours and forms of the domestic objects of Shire’s iconic practice while entirely removing the utilitarian aspects often found in his work.

Painted in Shire’s signature speckled gradient, the neon paintings activate all of our fantasies and associations with neon simultaneously, bringing our love/hate relationship with the glowing, gas-filled tubes into focus. Coupled with gouache works on paper containing small comical characters atop Shire’s architectural structures, are metal and ceramic abstract sculptures reminiscent of miniature radio towers.

Peter Shire was born in Los Angeles in 1947. His work can be found in museum collections such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Stedlijk Museum, the Netherlands; Total Contemporary Art Museum; South Korea and Victoria and Albert Museum, United Kingdom among others.