LETA PEER – Along with Simon
October 27 – December 21, 2007; Opening: Friday, October 26, 6 - 8 pm

ZURICH – From October 28 to December 21, 2007, the Fabian & Claude Walter Gallery, Zurich, will show a solo exhibition of Swiss artist Leta Peer (*1964, Winterthur). Recent paintings, such as the series „Along with Simon“, and photographs from the work group ”Mirrors“ will be on view at the gallery.

Leta Peer’s paintings show impressions and fragments of landscapes: mountaintops rising from clouds, heavily befogged precipices, thunderclouds towering above aestival meadows. As these descriptions suggest, atmosphere is an important focus of Peer’s landscapes. The artist is not mainly concerned with a mountain as such, but rather with its connection to surroundings and with the visual effect it has on a beholder. In this respect, Peer’s art, which in the past has repeatedly been linked to romanticism and its reception in contemporary art, is more closely related to impressionism. The same can be said for the fragmentary character and the openly visible brushstrokes, which are other characteristic features of Peer’s art.

The image selection and directness of view of impressionist painting were strongly influenced by photographic techniques, which were rapidly evolving at that time. Whereas in those days the actual process of painting itself still took place outdoors and in live view of the motive, Leta Peer paints in her studio, referring to photographs of nature. These provide support and addition for the personal, fragmentary memories of the artist, who grew up in the Engadin, a mountainous region in the east of Switzerland.

The works titled "Along with Simon" shown at the Fabian & Claude Walter Gallery differ from the rest. Compared to the other landscapes, which more generally deal with natural phenomena, these paintings are more strongly grounded in the specific and anecdotic. The point of view indeed is different here: The works are based on photographs taken by Peer’s brother Simon in the late 90s. Peer’s artistic appropriation of these photographs is a very personal attempt of a rapprochement to her brother, who died in 2004. With her series "Along with Simon", Peer embarks on a new path through home landscapes, which were also the home of her brother, trying to understand what these landscapes meant to him.

The paintings from the series “Along with Simon“ reappear, digitally mounted in new surroundings, in Peer’s photographs titled “Mirrors“. Such re-contextualizations repeatedly appear in Peer’s work, for instance as an installation of small scale works in private rooms (“Borrowed Places“, 2001) or as a digital insertion of landscape paintings in the rooms of a palais under restoration (“To Inhabit a Place“, 2002). These arrangements allow the artist to reflect on her own work and at the same time expand it.

The references of Peer's latest works to death and transience manifest themselves in the photographs’ motives: old, derelict rooms of a factory, the premises of a former bakery, emblematic not only of the isolation of Simon’s death, but also of the desolation experienced by the people he left behind. Within these surroundings, marked by decay and disintegration, Peer’s landscapes strongly assert themselves, as perpetual reflections of memory, protected by precious golden frames.

Catalogues are available for the two work series "Borrowed Places" and "To Inhabit a Place". If you would like to receive more information on the artist’s work, please do not hesitate to contact us. Upon demand, we can also provide print quality images.

From December 5 to 9, the Fabian & Claude Walter Gallery will participate in SCOPE Miami 07.