Andre Petterson

"Chaos Stitch"  48" x 36"  mixed media on board  2010

"Cilia Spill"  31.5" x 24"  mixed media on board  2009

"Margin Spill"  32" x 26"  mixed media on board  2010

"Shift- Release"  32" x 24"  mixed media on board  2010

"Push"  40" x 40"  mixed media  2010

Andre Petterson combines photography and painting to create some powerfully original images. The combination of media is a tricky one to pull off. It can often feel like little more than a cheat, a way for an artist to add some expressionistic zing to an otherwise realist image without having to resort to drawing, god forbid. But Petterson's images tie the two media together both visually and conceptually. In almost all of his recent work, mechanical devices can be seen as stand-ins, not for the photography, but for painting and drawing. They represent the hand-made, the self powered, the physical application of labor to one's desired goals, while the painting can be seen as standing in for the photography, capturing the instantaneous moment, action itself frozen in time. But even without this bit of intellectual over-interpretation, there is no doubt that the images by themselves are riveting. The high contrast and simple dynamic compositions lend them a powerful graphic impact. And they represent only the most recent pursuit of a man who has explored sculpture, music, film, performance art, kinetic work, set design and choreography. If he's half as good at any of those things as he is at creating 2-dimensional art... well then that's just not fair.
You can see more of his work at the following gallery websites:
www.fosterwhite.com and www.bau-xi.com