Due to the current situation with COVID-19, we have decided to launch a rolling virtual exhibit blog for our Tenth Anniversary year featuring art and additional components such as poetry to give a bit more of the experience of an opening reception or a series of receptions. Many of the featured artists are leaders in art education and the local art scene with significant potential for our collectors and patrons. We will spotlight artists like Alison Stinely, Ryan Lytle, Merrilee Cleveland, and many others as this rolling exhibit progresses. Writers such as Emily Pease, Thomas Heacox, and Heather Rounds will also be featured. Today is not a time to lower prices significantly which undercuts the careers of these artists but we understand that the market as been disrupted for everyone. We have rolled out the Gallery/ Artist sponsorship feature. Sponsor an artist or us by investing in a specific project or artwork or make a general payment toward a future purchase with the gift card feature. Please contact us at (757) 675-6627 or at for additional information about how to schedule a private appointment.
We are also honoring Linda Matney, whose 80th birthday was March 20. While Linda Matney lost her battle with cancer in 2001, her spirit drives the passion of the Gallery to support cancer survivors and research. The Gallery will continue taking and making donations in her name during the exhibition for charities supporting cancer research. During this time we are introducing artists such as Peter Geiger who are new to the gallery.
I caught up with Peter Geiger before what would have been our March 20 reception. Works by Geiger have been published to Artsy and will be available for private viewing fairly soon. His work is now some of the mostly widely viewed in our Virtual Tenth Anniversary Exhibit.
John Lee Matney
Roughly-hewn. Raw. Emotive. Zany. Syncopated. Heavy outlines. Gestural. Drunken. Dionysian. A record of my attempt at reconciling conflicting inputs, between what I see and what I think I see and what I feel I see.
Peter Geiger, 2020
JLM: Comment on the two paintings, Walk in My Shoes, and Checkerboard.
Peter Geiger, Walk in My Shoes, 2019, Acrylic, latex, spray paint, pastel, charcoal and painter’s tape on wood panel, 46 × 37 in, 116.8 × 94 cm
PG: “Walk in My Shoes”: The forms spill down the canvas in cataracts. Lines are frenetic. A car is referenced, but upended, not on the same plane. A window in the top right is crossed, but still serves as a respite and a possible escape from the energetic activity of the rest. The main subject is at the fore, a pair of badly worn Adidas. Bloody red marks slash across the stripes on one. The other is weighted downward at the nose. A trailing shoelace offers another escape route.
Peter Geiger, Checkerboard, 2019, Acrylic, latex, spray paint, pastel, charcoal and painter’s tape on wood panel, 48 × 36 in, 116.8 × 94 cm
PG: “Checkerboard”: Two towers made of blocks impose their mass on the picture plane. The dark shapes advance more, in a heavy, rude way. In contrast, thin lines cut across the towers, delineating what could be considered a grid. The lines are like rusted wires. Taken from a step back, or squinting, the composition resembles a checkerboard, and the skulls then become pieces in a mysterious game.
Peter Geiger, Fan, 2019, Acrylic, latex, spray paint, pastel, charcoal and painter’s tape on wood panel, 48 × 36 in, 116.8 × 94 cm
JLM: Comment on your work in general.
PG: Roughly-hewn. Raw. Emotive. Zany. Syncopated. Heavy outlines. Gestural. Drunken. Dionysian. A record of my attempt at reconciling conflicting inputs, between what I see and what I think I see and what I feel I see.
JLM: What are some of your milestone works?
PG: I don’t know about milestones, but I have had many millstones, especially in grad school. Once I realized that my painting is more about expressing my feelings towards the visible world, rather than the visible world itself, I was emancipated. Cowboy rock was the first recent painting I did with this new awareness.
Peter Geiger, Cowboy Rock
JLM: Who and what has influenced your practice?
PG: The Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and other post punk bands. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The New York school of abstractionists, Kathy Bradford, Peter Acheson, Chris Martin, e.g. Face to face I am made wiser by council with Leigh Anne Chambers, and more recently Vic Colaizzi, and Paul D’Agostino.
