Peter Halley (born 1953[3]) is an American artist and a central figure in the Neo-Conceptualist movement of the 1980s. Known for his Day-Glo geometric paintings, Halley is also a writer, the former publisher of index Magazine, and a teacher; he served as director of graduate studies in painting and printmaking at the Yale University School of Art from 2002 to 2011. Halley lives and works in New York City.Halley came to prominence as an artist in the mid-1980s, as part of the generation of Neo-Conceptualist artists that first exhibited in New York's East Village, including Jeff Koons, Haim Steinbach, Sarah Charlesworth, Annette Lemieux, Steven Parrino, Phillip Taaffe, and Gretchen Bender.
Halley's paintings explore both the physical and psychological structures of social space; he connects the hermetic language of geometric abstraction-influenced by artists such as Barnett Newman and Ellsworth Kelly-to the actualities of urban space and the digital landscape. In the 1990s, he expanded his practice to include installations based around the technology of large-scale digital prints.
Halley is also known for his critical writings, which, beginning in the 1980s, linked the ideas of French Post-Structuralist
theorists such as Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard to the digital revolution and the visual arts. From 1996 to 2005, Halley published Index Magazine, which featured in-depth interviews with emergent and established figures in fashion, music, film, and other creative fields. Having also taught art in several graduate programs, Halley became the director of graduate studies in painting and printmaking at the Yale University School of Art, serving from 2002 to 2011.
Career Highlights
Solo show at a major institution
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Museo Reina Sofia, Dallas Contemporary
Group show at a major institution
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, New Museum, Serpentine Galleries, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Kunstmuseum Basel, The Broad, Dallas Museum of Art, Museo Reina Sofia, MCA Chicago
Collected by a major institution
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and Collezione Maramotti
Reviewed by a major art publication Artforum
Included in a major biennial Venice Biennale International Exhibition
Peter Halley, who emerged in New York’s East Village art scene in the early 1980s
alongside Jeff Koons and Julian Schnabel, is best known for his Day-Glo paintings of
rectangular cells connected by angular conduits. While he takes inspiration from artists
including Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers, and Donald Judd, Halley’s concerns are decidedly
contemporary: His abstract diagrams evoke the alienation of prison cells, city living, and
technology. Halley consistently works with Roll-a-Tex—an industrial, textured paint used for
decoration—and applies his fluorescent hues with a roller instead of a paintbrush; there’s no
sign of the artist’s hand in his finished works. Halley’s pieces have sold for up to six-figure prices at auction and can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate, and the Centre Pompidou. Halley has also produced works on paper and constructed large-scale installations around the world.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Solo show at a major institution
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Museo Reina Sofia, Dallas Contemporary
Group show at a major institution
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney
Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, New
Museum, Serpentine Galleries, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Museu 39;Art
Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Kunstmuseum Basel, The Broad, Dallas
Museum of Art, Museo Reina Sofia, MCA Chicago
Collected by a major institution
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and Collezione Maramotti Reviewed by a major art publication Artforum, and 4 more
Included in a major biennial
Venice Biennale International Exhibition, and 1 more
Achievements
Active Secondary Market
Recent auction results in Artsy