Opening Reception: Friday, October 5, 2012, 5–7 PM
In Santa Fe Painter Peter Burega’s latest oeuvre, he brings his signature high-energy, abstract vision
to a subject dear to his heart: the New Mexico landscape. Burega is intrigued by evidence of human
presence against the backdrop of nature at its most powerful, and he has traveled the state
photographing scenes that reveal the soul of New Mexico culture and history---an old grocery store
set along a lonely road, beyond which tower majestic 12,000 foot peaks, or weathered adobe homes
and outbuildings amid meadows of breathtaking beauty. “I’m interested in the intersection of human-
made structures and nature, in the places New Mexicans choose to make their homes,” he says.
While the landscape is his departure point, Burega uses his paints to distill the scenic elements he
photographs down to their minimal essence, infusing them with a dynamism that radiates so vividly
that the literal details are unnecessary and the abstraction becomes a kind of vortex that draws the
viewer in. He imposes a grid to give the paintings a framework to contain the restless energy he
expresses, which creates a tension within the panels that seems to shift the images and shapes as
you watch.
Formerly a concert pianist, a corporate lawyer, and a television producer, Burega now focuses his
seemingly limitless creativity solely on painting, and his growing body of work attests to his command
of his newest medium. Neither metaphorical nor literal, but rather a fusion of the two, these paintings
also fuse the subtle and the dramatic in a uniquely personal expression that taps into the universal
as well.
For Additional Information Contact:
Nancy Hunter
505.984.2111
hunterkirkland@earthlink.net
Visit the Hunter Kirkland website for more information on this exhibition