Peter Allen Hoffmann
Peter Allen Hoffmann's interests lie in the tropes and themes associated with the history of painting. Through carefully composed works that stand out for their sumptuous glazing and incorporation of underpainting, Hoffmann explores the genres of abstraction, landscape painting, and still life. Each of these typologies is distilled in ways that obliquely suggest other artists or time periods, but become uniquely his own. Modulation of scale is an important element in Hoffmann’s practice. He works in two painting formats: one foot and six feet square. These sizes relate to the human body: head and arm span, respectively. Hoffmann has been drawn to the abstract compositions of quilts, so his interests are not always focused on painting with a capital “P” but also the expressions of self-taught, anonymous makers. Another touchstone for Hoffmann is what he calls American “folk abstraction,” evident in the work of trained artists like Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove, whose idiosyncratic styles stand in relief to other artists working at the time. The small-scale abstractions that Hoffmann creates resonate in spirit with these early American modernists. While at first glance Hoffmann’s work may bring to mind post-structuralist theory’s critique of originality and “death of the author” arguments that …
Peter Allen Hoffmann's interests lie in the tropes and themes associated with the history of painting. Through carefully composed works that stand out for their sumptuous glazing and incorporation of underpainting, Hoffmann explores the genres of abstraction, landscape painting, and still life. Each of these typologies is distilled in ways that obliquely suggest other artists or time periods, but become uniquely his own. Modulation of scale is an important element in Hoffmann’s practice. He works in two painting formats: one foot and six feet square. These sizes relate to the human body: head and arm span, respectively. Hoffmann has been drawn to the abstract compositions of quilts, so his interests are not always focused on painting with a capital “P” but also the expressions of self-taught, anonymous makers. Another touchstone for Hoffmann is what he calls American “folk abstraction,” evident in the work of trained artists like Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove, whose idiosyncratic styles stand in relief to other artists working at the time. The small-scale abstractions that Hoffmann creates resonate in spirit with these early American modernists. While at first glance Hoffmann’s work may bring to mind post-structuralist theory’s critique of originality and “death of the author” arguments that heavily influenced appropriation art during the 1980s, Hoffmann does not see himself as a flag-bearer for any theoretical rationale. Rather, he wishes to set up conversations across different categories of painting, never copying historical painting styles verbatim, his signature handling of the medium always in evidence.
Hoffmann has had solo exhibitions at Freight + Volume, Thomas Robertello, 222 Gallery, Vox Populi, and Wexford Arts Centre. Hoffmann has been featured in group shows at venues such as Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, Thomas Robertello, Hallway Projects, Open-Galerie, Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Makor Gallery, Jen Bekman Gallery, and the Painting Center. He has been a resident at Cow House Studios, and has received several awards, including a William Graf Travel Grant and a Tony Smith Scholarship.
Courtesy of Fleisher/Ollman Gallery
