Architectural Abstractions

The work represents the further development of concepts in the design of space in architecture.  Layers, transitions, offsets and shifts are explored as a means of defining horizontal and vertical space.  Painting is the tool that leads to this exploration of shapes as definers of space.  The shapes represent space shown in plan, section or elevation.  The paintings may be read as a plan or a section or an elevation of structure in its environment.

These concepts are further influenced by the natural and built environment in Italy.  The yellow, ochre and smoky olive-green colors in the landscape as well as the ancient, degenerating buildings that reveal their many layers of multi-colored plaster are developed in abstraction.  The quality of light in this region is extraordinary and the colors are incredibly vivid and intense. The traditional Italian agrarian landscape provides an interesting model how the natural and man made environments meet.

The Walls and Light series is influenced by the great American architect Louis Kahn’s concept of light only having meaning when it meets a wall. 

Other paintings are influenced by the great Swiss architect Mario Botta’s statement that architecture begins not with a stone being placed on a stone but a stone being placed in the land.

In a sense, my work represents an ongoing philosophical discovery of the duality of architecture being abstract and self referential as opposed to architecture as integrated with the natural environment.

Peter Y. Alberice

2005