Gallery

Peter Sedgley

The Art Stable is delighted to be presenting an exhibition of work from the last 30 years by Peter Sedgley, a leading figure in the Optical and Kinetic movements that came to prominence during the 1960s. Born in London, Sedgley studied architecture before devoting himself solely to visual art from 1959. Peter Sedgley’s first solo exhibitions in 1965 were held at McRoberts and Tunnard Gallery, London and Howard Wise Gallery, New York. He was included in the influential Responsive Eye exhibiiton at MOMA, New York in 1964 and was a prizewinner at the Tokyo Biennale in 1965.

It was during the sixties that his initial interest in light and movement were developed. The transformation of these two intangible forces, together with his search for different ways of using colour as a carrier for optical communication, have become his life-long themes. This exhibition includes a number of paintings from the late 1970’s and 80’s each one creating its own particular optical effect, sometimes an illusion of depth, sometimes one of movement.

In the 1960’s Sedgley started experimenting with dichroic glass which has the unique property of transmitting one colour while reflecting its complimentary. This opened up new ways of working and led to the creation of kinetic pieces during the 1980’s and 90’s and since 2000 to the construction of what Sedgley has called ‘Windomes’. The works are both mirrors, in which viewers can see themselves and windows into a passageway beyond. The exhibition at the Art Stable will include one of these.

In 1972 Sedgley moved to Berlin where he has lived ever since. During the 80’s and 90’s Sedgley won large scale public commissions, mainly in Germany, working with light and sound in collaboration with composers. In 2000 Kelly Ross presented the first solo exhibition of Peter Sedgley’s work in London for seventeen years, to coincide with his 70th birthday. He was included an exhibition reviewing the 60’s, Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era at Tate Liverpool in 2005 and Traces du Sacre at the Pompidou Centre in Paris earlier this year. He has many works in public collections including Tate, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, the Government Art Collection and the Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis.