• Peter Illig

    Date posted: September 19, 2006 Author: jolanta
    Image Peter Illig’s works are analogies for human emotions and experiences – American psychological landscapes – reflecting how we think of several things at once. 

    Peter Illig’s latest series of large oil paintings borrow from
    vernacular American illustration. These images float in the margins of
    our conscious mind as icons of popular art, and even as lowbrow
    exploitation. But they are, in fact, full of irony and metaphor. Most
    come from paperback book covers, with topics of murder, mystery and
    urban life.

     "I use the images to comment on power politics,
    and question assumptions we have about relationships between men and
    women," says Illig. The paintings, then, hover on the edge of art and
    pop culture.

     Illig is a realist, and a surrealist at the same
    time. "Once upon a time, the task of the artist was to portray and
    interpret the ‘real world,’" says Illig.  "Now it is to discern if
    there is a reality behind the appearance of things. Reality is created
    by observation. This search through the ‘stuff’ of the world, matter
    and flesh, is inherently erotic. And so is the act of drawing and
    painting. By immersing ourselves in the physical, material world, we
    can see the path to the higher realm, and find the spiritual meanings
    behind the physical objects."

    These meanings and objects
    intersect and overlap – in life, and in Illig’s art. Where does one
    object end and another begin? Where does one idea end and another begin
    to form? Can theory become visual? These and other questions are
    presented in Illig’s work.

    In late 2005, Peter debuted his
    "Modular Dialog" series, an ongoing body of work composed of individual
    14 x 14-inch metaphorical oil paintings which can be arranged and
    re-arranged into narrative matrixes of varying sizes and
    interpretations. Today, Illig’s studio time is divided between these
    black and white paintings, and the new, larger color paintings with
    layered images. He is also widely recognized for his charcoal drawings,
    some of which are more than 60 ft long. His work can be seen in several
    Colorado galleries, and in private and corporate collections around the
    world

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