Peter Horvath V. 2

Peter Horvath is an assemblage artist who has exhibited around the world in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. His works remain in prestigious permanent collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Nion McEvoy Collection, Davies Ward Philips & Vineberg LLP, and The New Museum in New York. Peter’s most recent exhibitions include solo and group shows at Galerie de Bellefeuille in Toronto as well as collective exhibitions at multiple locations at Song-Word Art House, ArtCan in London, Art Gallery of Hamilton in Canada, and the AC Institute in New York. 

A TITAN of post-pop surfaces, Peter Horvath by himself instills the art of assemblage as a top-tier artform in contemporary discourse. Unlike many other pop artists, Peter elevates his subjects beyond icons of popular culture into reverence on the scale of shrines to contemporary gods and titans. His subjects typically emanate from the golden era of entertainment from the 1940s to the 1970s. In Peter’s assemblages, the viewer will find stars such as Frank Sinatra, women from James Bond films, Sophia Loren, Marlon Brando, Billie Holiday, and Clint Eastwood. He creates an appeal to these characters which border on mythology between the tears of his books, newsprint, magazines, star stickers, and spraypaint into realms of high-aesthetic nostalgia.

The technique we will find in Peter Horvath’s works entails assemblages with carefully orchestrated composition yet applied in a crude manner. As a result, much of Peter’s works may resemble torn subway posters one would find on the streets and train stations of New York. These compositions bloom and blast towards creating an understanding of how these cultural icons from the golden era of film, music, television, and entertainment have had an impact on our collective social and cultural psyche. Peter’s assemblages investigate surfaces into cosmic realms of creating the sheer tear of the paper in his works to resemble forms similar to lightning. His approach to assemblage redefines the artform and medium beyond expressions of improvisation and into configurations which express a deep aesthetic to subjects which would otherwise be regarded as distant memories. With grand gesture and brilliant craftsmanship, Peter Horvath elevates notions of low-brow symbolism into pieces of grand high-art constructs.

The Godfather (pictured above) may seem like a piece of improvisational work, but upon closer inspection, the viewer will find details related to the narrative of Marlon Brando’s character in the iconic film. In the assemblage, we will find texts such as ‘no holding back’ and ‘70mm’ along with miniature torn images of Michael Corleone, the ‘Paramount’ studio icon as well as pictures of cars from the movie. The Godfather elevates a great film into realms of contemporary reverence through Peter’s clever incorporation of narratives, materials, and composed-controlled chaos.

Peter Horvath will be remembered as an artist who not only impacted interpretations of pop culture, but also has brought the artform of assemblage into deep contemporary relevance. His integrative techniques and bold initiative lead to constructions streaming strides of sfumato-haze between the tears of his pages. Although the pieces may appear heavily improvised, upon closer inspection, the viewer will find the brilliant compositions and references contained within the works are carefully constructed through thoughtful practices of creating artworks which are archives of mid-20th century history as much as they are revered grand spectacles of contemporary art. These compositions reveal a deep mind with attention to sacred reverence to memories both forgotten as well as never experienced. Peter Horvath combines recent history with contemporary inclinations which elevate subject matter through a thoughtful integrative process of mystique and iconography.

https://www.peterhorvathartist.net