Since the 1980’s Peter Halley has been resolutely committed to a distinct reductive style of geometric abstraction formally known as ‘neo-geo’. In the paintings rough textured surfaces are a matrix of grids within grids with black lines that demarcate spaces. Color-coded squares or rectangles, and interlocking vertical/horizontal bands emphasize their connectedness. Halley’s vey specific abstract language is one of monochromatic palettes that vary from cool muted color combinations to more fluorescent Pop ones. Alternating between coarse and smooth these repeating patterns are painted with synthetic pigments on canvas. Acrylic, Day-Glo, pearlescent, metallic acrylic, and Roll-a-Tex paint emphasize the industrial urban aspects implied in his works.

The ambient colors employed by Peter Halley are very much in sync with our digital age. Relating to social spaces in a post-industrial society the painting’s simplicity belies their very considered approach to an art practice that remains consistent. They have an organizational structure akin to architecture and municipal planning and are schematic like a flow chart. Each component of the picture is a cell. A cell is a unit, compartment, or nucleus; it can also be a prison. Cells and 21st century computer circuitry are the infrastructure of global civilization. For Halley this takes on a personal meaning in his relationship to societal structures. Resonating with the flux of daily life these paintings none-the-less offer the viewer a guilty pleasure. The have wall power and a visual dynamic that cannot be ignored.