“LIFE” comes to the Peekskill waterfront


“LIFE” comes to the Peekskill waterfront.
Massive paintings fill arches near train station.

Peekskill, NY — Life looms large on the Hudson River waterfront these days, as a series of gigantic paintings along the river by artist Peter Bynum is unveiled. The exhibition, entitled “Life,” uses almost 4,000 square feet of canvas to fill ten enormous stone arches near the river with biomorphic forms swimming in space.
The work is part of The Peekskill Project, an annual art event organized by the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art.
Working at the intersection of art and science, Bynum has invented a technique that illuminates what he calls paint’s “secret life.” Paint, he discovered, has a natural ability, independent of the human hand, to express a universal principle that unites all life.
“All living organisms survive by complex system of veins and capillaries,” Bynum says, “from the cardio-vascular system in our bodies to the branches and root systems of plants. Paint, under certain conditions, replicates genius of these branching systems and shows the universal life-force in action.”
Historically, paint has been a dumb medium for human expression. But Bynum developed a technique of pressing paint between sheets of glass, coaxing out it uncanny ability to express a universal principle of growth and survival that unites all life on earth.

The original paintings on glass (the art in the arches are photos of the paintings) are in
Bynum’s studio nearby.
Dede Young, former curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Neuberger Museum, says, “Peter Bynum has made one breakthrough after another, and invented a new way of painting. He’s pushed the language of painting into a new place. It changes the conversation.”
Bynum’s work has been exhibited in Rome, Shanghai, Basel, Paris, Cologne and throughout the U.S. In 2011, the Rome Museum of Contemporary Art included his paintings in it’s landmark exhibition “Macro: The Road to the Future.” In 2013, New York’s Museum of Art & Design commissioned a large, illuminated triptych to feature alongside renowned light artist James Turrell, naming Bynum and Turrell two of the most influential artists of the last half-century who work with glass. In 2014, he was commissioned by the New York Public Library to fill its 5th Avenue windows with 17 illuminated paintings. That exhibition, using four tons and 2,000 square feet of glass, was illuminated day and night for eight months and seen by an estimated 9 million people.
Bynum received his MFA from New York University. He lives and works in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Event Location and Ticket Information

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HVCCA Off Site
100 North Water Street
Peekskill, NY 10566
Handicap Accessible? Yes

Date: Sunday, November 1, 2015
Times: 2:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Ticket pricing:
Free event

Presenter: HVCCA
Presenter Phone: 914-788-0100
Presenter Website: www.hvcca.org