|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gugger Petter Barking Dogs |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PRESS RELEASE
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born in Denmark, Gugger Petter studied art in Copenhagen, Rome, Mexico City and Belgium. Before coming to the United States, she lived in Mexico for 11 years. During that time she was saddened by the daily appearance of stray dogs roaming the country. Nothing was ever done to assist these dogs or stop the continuous flow of stray dogs. In 1994 Petter decided to pay tribute to them by creating sculptures in bronze and mixed media. Since then she has given further voice to these animals by including a dog in many of her large wall pieces depicting street scenes. In her new exhibit, “BARKING DOGS” opening at Jane Sauer Gallery Friday, August 20th, Petter further establishes her deep feelings for lost canines. Known for depicting truncated figures of both men and women in her scenes, for the first time she shows the dogs as the central characters, unaffected by the feet and legs of surrounding people or even of the viewer. In Petter’s work the dialogues are open; the viewer is not given the full picture and must complete the narrative on their own. When looking at “Woman with Barking Dog,” the viewer can almost hear the penetrating yelp. The viewer asks whether the others in the picture are disturbed by this invasion of their space or are they oblivious. In the process of establishing the story, the viewer becomes a participant. The mystery of unanswered questions is mesmerizing. The artist’s titles leave the door open for interpretation, giving no clues. In “Two Barking Dogs’’ two dogs appear to be barking, or is that a conversation with each other? The frame captures a snippet of daily life on the street. Two dogs encounter each other, become engaged in a variety of ways, most certainly some barking will take place. |
Petter’s innovative and masterful use of newspaper is surprising and engaging. She states: “My fascination with newspaper consists not only of its being "the diary of our lives," it also presents me with a black/white/and a limited color palette, which has always been my choice.” Color from the Sunday comics section or advertisements, is woven into the black and white print from the newspaper. Sometimes she sparingly paints her newspaper canvas to embellish the picture plane. “My work is most often based on an oversized image of an observation of daily life, which can be seen as an abstraction as well as a representational image, where surface, subject matter, color and content all convey tension between opposites.” About the importance of daily newspapers as a metaphor she says: “I find the informative aspect of newspaper quite important. Since each piece I create holds all the world/local news of that particular time frame, it becomes an historic piece within itself. All artists date their oeuvre with great importance - reflecting their moment in time. My works not only hold a date, they also represent a historic documentation of our lives. This information may not be of importance to the viewer, but for me each piece becomes a diary.” Petter uses newspapers that are current at the time she makes the piece. Selected Permanent Collections
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||
Note: To properly view this email click here or on Click Here button at the top |
|||||||||
