Artist Bio:
Peter Gynd is an artist originally from Vancouver, Canada, and is known for his expressive oil paintings characterized as “single stroke landscapes”.
He studied Old Masters oil painting and classical sculpture before getting a BFA in Glassblowing in Calgary, Canada, and an MFA in Painting in New York City.
He has travelled the world to study art and has taught oil painting in Italy, Canada, Mexico and the United States.
In addition to making art, Peter Gynd is known for his curatorial projects, including a permanent exhibition at the Foundation Center (now Candid) in New York; critically reviewed presentations at the SPRING/BREAK Art Fair (NY & LA); and countless exhibitions by internationally know artists and rising stars while the director of Lesley Heller Gallery in New York (2016–2020).
Gynd’s paintings have been shown around North America, including solo shows at the SPRING/BREAK Art Fair in New York & L.A., Space 776 in New York, and the qathet Art Centre in British Columbia, Canada.
He has been a guest speaker at the Pratt Institute, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Long Island City University – Post, along with leading professional development workshops at NYFA, The Art Students League, Artadia, and Ninth Street Collective.
Artist Statement:
I view the act of painting as a meditation.
With plein air painting this meditative state comes about through the pressure of time and changing light. There is no time to dwell on the subject at hand, one must directly respond to and channel it into painting.
In the studio this meditative state often comes about through an initial ritual time of cleansing, preparation, and clearing of the mind.
The paintings themselves I view as altars—they are objects which offer the same meditative experience back to those spending time with them. They are places for reflection and contemplation; places to connect and centre oneself, and physically (though the handmade shelves often included to display the painting on) somewhere to add symbols and mementos of the places and experiences unique to the people who collect and live with the works.
