Joseph Peller

Dragonfly Studios
Painter Sculptor Printmaker Artist

News
Exhibitions:

painting entitled Evening, Brooklyn Bound by Joseph Peller
Evening, Brooklyn Bound
pastel/ gouache
15.8 x 22.3 inches, 40.195 x 56.8 cm

Track Work: One Hundred Years of New York City's Subway

ACA Galleries
New York, New York 
January 4 through March 7, 2020

painting entitled Evening Showers by Joseph Peller.
Evening Showers
etching and color screen, color edition of 30,
14 15/16 x 21 13/16 inches /37.9 x 55.4 cm

Solar Impressions

Juried Group Exhibition
Southhampton Arts Center
Southampton, New York 
November 16 through December 29, 2019

Ladies' Night, painting by Joseph Peller.
Ladies' Night
oil on linen
70 x 82 inches, 177.8 x 208.2 cm

Music is the Message

Group Exhibition
ACA Galleries
New York, New York 
July 16 through October 5, 2019

painting entitled Evening Showers by Joseph Peller
Evening Showers
etching and color screen, color edition of 30,
14 15/16 x 21 13/16 inches /37.9 x 55.4 cm

Invitation to Guanlan Printmaking Base

In March 2016 Mr. Peller was invited to do a second printmaking residency at the Guanlan Printmaking Base in Guanlan, China, after his work, Closing Time, was selected in the 5th Guanlan International Print Biennial Exhibition in 2015. He completed four new editions including a new color edition, Evening Shower.

painting entitled Closing Time Brooklyn Roaster by Joseph Peller
Closing Time
black and white etching  edition of 30
13 13/16 x 197/8 in. - 34.9 x 50 cm

Selected for 5th Guanlan International Print Biennial China 2015

In May 2015, Mr. Peller's work, Closing Time was selected from 3000 entries for the 5th Guanlan International Print Biennial China 2015 an international juried exhibition held at the new Guanlan Art Museum in Guanlan China.

Closing Time Brooklyn Roaster
Tugs and Barges at Sunset
oil on linen, 22 x 52 in., 55.9 x 132.1 cm cm

Featured painting, "Tugs and Barges at Sunset"

Mr. Peller's oil painting, Tugs and Barges at Sunset was featured in the group exhibition, Allied Artists of America 100 Years at the Canton Museum of Art in Canton Ohio. The exhibition continues through July 19, 2015. A catalog is available.

Closing Time Brooklyn Roaster
Closing Time Brooklyn Roaster
oil on linen, 36 x 52 in - 91.4 x 132 cm

A Variegated Light: The City

Solo Exhibition
Thursday, November 6 - Saturday November 29, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 6   5 PM-7 PM
Roberts Gallery
641 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M4Y 1Z9
(416) 924-8731
www.robertsgallery.net

The works in the exhibition will represent images of a metropolis, created in a variety of media including, oil, sculpture, and works on paper. ARTnews’ Mona Molarsky’s review of Peller’s most recent solo exhibition at ACA Galleries in New York observed, “Peller’s paintings capture the grit and romance of Manhattan”. Urban scenes and citizens of the city will be explored and exposed, in a series of moments, vividly expressed. Also featured will be a series of etching editions that the artist completed during his recent residency at the Guanlan Printmaking Base in the People’s Republic of China. These editions offer a black-and-white counterpoint to the urgency of the urban environment.

The artist will be present for the opening reception Thursday, November 6th from 5 PM to 7 PM. For more information, please contact Paul Wildridge at (416) 924-8731 or at www.RobertsGallery.net.

Etching entitled Aboard the Ferry by Joseph Peller.
Aboard the Ferry, etching, edition of 30, 15 x 22.5 in, 38 x 57 cm

Span and Dialogue - 2014 American Contemporary Print Exhibition

Original Printmaking Base Guanlan, China

painting entitled Summer Evening by Joseph Peller
Summer Evening, oil on linen, 34 x 50 in, 86.4 x 127 cm

Circadian Rhythms of the City

Solo Exhibition
Thursday, March 13 - April 25, 2014
ACA Galleries
529 W. 20th St. fifth floor New York New York 10011
acagalleries.com
Thursday, March 13 through April 25, 2014

Joseph Peller gave two talks at ACA Galleries in conjunction with his solo exhibition Circadian Rhythms of the City.

On March 21, Mr. Peller was invited as a guest artist to speak on his work at ACA Galleries in the LeAp’s Public Art program sponsored by the city of New York which encourages middle school students l to have a voice in their communities on critical social issues through the creation and public exhibition of art in New York City parks.

On March 22 Joseph Peller gave a talk on aspects of his work in his current solo exhibition Circadian Rhythms of the City at ACA Galleries. The talk highlighted the genesis of the major themes and the sources used, as the artist's visual point of departure Mr. Peller also discussed the various mediums used in the exhibition.

The word circadian refers to a process recurring naturally on a twenty four-hour cycle. Joseph Peller sees the city as a living organism whose citizens’ daily rituals and routines set the ebb and flow of the city's biological clock as reliably as sunrise and sunset. In this solo exhibition Peller introduces new paintings, sculpture and works on paper, including a series of new etching editions done during a four-week printmaking residency in 2013 at the Guanlan Printmaking Base in the People's Republic of China.

The works in the exhibition will represent images of a metropolis, created in a variety of media including, oil, sculpture, and works on paper. ARTnews’ Mona Molarsky’s review of Peller’s most recent solo exhibition at ACA Galleries in New York observed, “Peller’s paintings capture the grit and romance of Manhattan”. Urban scenes and citizens of the city will be explored and exposed, in a series of moments, vividly expressed. Also featured will be a series of etching editions that the artist completed during his recent residency at the Guanlan Printmaking Base in the People’s Republic of China. These editions offer a black-and-white counterpoint to the urgency of the urban environment.

The artist will be present for the opening reception Thursday, November 6th from 5 PM to 7 PM. For more information, please contact Paul Wildridge at (416) 924-8731 or at www.RobertsGallery.net.

Night Owls
Friday Night,black-and-white etching
12 7/8 x 17 7/8, inches, 30 cm x 55 cm   edition of 3o

Printmaking Residency, Guanlan, China

April 2013

In April 2013 Joseph Peller participated in a four-week printmaking residency at the Guanlan Printmaking Base in Guanlan, China as a guest of the People's Republic of China. While there, he completed six etching editions. The artist also visited Japan to view the works of Japanese printmakers Hokusai, Hasui, and Hiroshi.

 painting entitled Night Owls by Joseph Peller.
Tramp Steamer Fading Light, oil on linen,
24 x 40 in, 60.9 x 101.6 cm

Instructors Exhibition

Group Exhibition

September 2013

Art Students League of New York
New York City

Publications

Etching entitled Closing Time by Joseph Peller.
Closing Time
black and white etching  edition of 30
13 13/16 x 197/8 in. - 34.9 x 50 cm

Publication of ‘Closing Time’

Mr. Peller had the honor of having his black-and-white etching, Closing Time published in the Guanlan International Print Biennial China 2015 Catalog.

Pastel,monotype on paper entitled Starbuck Man by Joseph Peller.
Starbuck Man
pastel/monotype on paper, 14 x 10 in. (35.6 x 25.4 cm)
Painting entitled Starbuck Man by Joseph Peller.
Saturday Morning
oil on linen, 18 x 14 in. (45.7 x 35.6 cm)

Inclusion of paintings ‘Starbuck Man’ and ‘Saturday Morning’ in essays.

Mr. Peller's painting Starbuck Man was used with an essay Liberated as Hell, by Brent Cebul.

Mr. Peller's painting, Saturday Morning was used for an essay, The Disreputables by Benjamin H. Snyder.

Both paintings were published in The Hedgehog Review, Critical Reflections on Contemporary Culture published by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, at the University of Virginia.

Pastel on paper entitled Night Owls by Joseph Peller.
Night Owls
pastel    16.5 x 21.5 in, 41.9 x 54 cm

Inclusion in Artstor Digital Library.

Mr. Peller had 40 images of his work released in the Artstor Digital Library database in May 2015.

This exclusive database for scholars curators connoisseurs museums and art institutions and galleries allows interested viewers to view the work in large-scale file formats.

Painting entitled Summer Evening by Joseph Peller.
Summer Evening    oil on linen     34 x 50 in, 86.4 x 127 cm

In its Summer 2014 issue, Artnews critic Mona Molarsky, gave a thoughtful review of Joseph Peller's solo exhibition at ACA Galleries, ‘Circadian Rhythms of the City’.

Artnews, Summer 2014
Joseph Peller
ACA Galleries

“Joseph Peller's show, titled ‘Circadian Rhythms of the City’ featured paintings of iconic New York scenes: tugboats in the harbor, rush-hour crowds at Grand Central Terminal, dawn over the Williamsburg Bridge. But the most memorable images were casual observations, such as a rainslicked street in Chelsea glowing red under a theater marquee, Bethesda Fountain rising out of blue-tinted snow in Central Park, and hustlers lolling under amber streetlamps in Union Square. Peller characteristically works from life and often uses himself and his friends as subjects.

“The high-key color and moody lighting of Peller's paintings capture the grit and romance of Manhattan, harking back to the early 20th century of George Bellows and the Ashcan School. Some pieces in this exhibition gestured back further. A couple of large canvases conjured an upper-crust Manhattan that could have been inhabited by robber barons. In one, a young man with a cigar and his bare-shouldered date share brandy and dessert as they sit in a sumptuous restaurant with a reproduction of Tintoretto's ‘Leda and the Swan’; hanging just above their heads. In another, a pale, black-gowned woman with vermilion hair poses beside a piano, exuding an icy but erotic vibe reminiscent of John Singer Sargent's ‘Madame X’.

“Peller is as adept in pastels, watercolor, and etching as he is in oil, and he has peppered many of these pieces with references to art history. His ‘Fireworks’(2002), a pastel on paper, captures the Whistlerian poetry of pyrotechnics exploding through mist. ‘Wake of the Ferry’ (2014), another pastel on paper, is an homage to John Sloan's painting of the same name. Peller has smartly restyled old New York in 21st-century garb while also looking at the present head-on. In ‘Saturday Morning’ (2014), he captures a woman in her natural habitat-ensconced in her office and surrounded by books, computers, and papers.”

– Mona Molarsky

Span and Dialogue exhibition cover
Etching entitled Aboard the Ferry by Joseph Peller
Aboard the Ferry     etching, edition of 30    
15 x 22.5 in, 38 x 57 cm

Span & Dialogue - 2014 American Contemporary Print Exhibition

“This exhibition is representative of trends in contemporary printmaking in America. The works embody the American spirit of freedom, equality and creativity. A portion of the works exhibited, demonstrate how America Printmaking is enriched through multiculturalism with several of the artists immigrating to America from other countries. These multiple cultural cross-currents in printmaking strengthens the mystery and enchantment of the new American Dream. However, Guanlan's influence also cannot be ignored. Recently, more and more professional American print artists have been invited for residencies and to work at Guanlan. Guanlan Printmaking Base provides a platform for the "collision" of ideas, dialogues and exchanges between American values and those of other cultures creating a dialectic for shared world values. Today Sino- US exchanges attract worldwide attention, so it is of significance that these works are shown in Guanlan at this time.

“I considered the diverse audience that would view the exhibition. Professional artists, curators, arts administrators and others who have a deep knowledge of art and contemporary printmaking. Equally as important are groups of young students who come to the base, local folks and sightseers. I wanted the exhibition to both challenge the viewer and educate them about printmaking in America. So I selected various media; lithography, woodcuts, silkscreens and etchings. I selected artists grounded in realism, abstraction, and those making satirical and humorous works. I attempted to show the broad range of the diversity of American creativity in print. Moreover the exhibition provides the viewer a span of print artists from those who have been making prints for over 40 years to those students only 3 or 4 years into their creative journey. It is hoped that the viewers will find interesting patterns between these generations of artists all on their visionary journeys.”

– Professor Hugh J. Merrill, Kansas City Art Institute

Classical Life Drawing Studio
Excerpt from the book - contribution by Joseph Peller:.

“Teaching at the League I stress the poetic use of line in preference to tone for depicting mass and volume. I encourage my students to work from life wherever possible; to keep a notebook of small studies based on sketches from the model and daily encounters with other people; practices that develop a personal vision in all aspects of their art.

“My students are given the same simple tools and approaches that I received. Viewfinders and plumb lines; working site size and life-size let them grasp how drawing informs ways of seeing.

“The League’s motto ‘Nulla Deis Sine Linea’, ‘No Day Without a Line’ echoes my understanding of drawing. This historic student drawing produced many years ago reveals many principles I admire. Emphasis on line and contour with a restrained sense of tonality achieves volume by delicately accented variations of line. Moreover, there is an elegant feeling of balance that is so crucial in depicting the standing figure. Displaying classical proportion with a relaxed, graceful, movement the figure has presence, what academic draftsmen would call ‘attitude’, the character of the model and the pose. These are the hallmarks of fine draftsmanship.”

Classical Life Drawing Studio, Sterling Publishing Co. New York, London, 2010