PETER HALLEY (New York, 1953). "Epic," 2013. Acrylic, Day-Glo acrylic and Roll-a-Tex on canvas. Signed and dated on the back. Attached certificate signed by the artist. Measurements: 170 x 141 cm; 174 x 145 x 13,5 cm (frame). In "Epic", Peter Halley continues his research on geometry as a carrier of hidden meanings relating to power structures and coercive social dynamics. Bands, rectangles create a sense of order and rigidity, while fluorescent colors seek to create a sense of some latent violence and visual energy. Peter Halley's "Epic" series is a bold and provocative exploration of geometric abstraction, color theory and the relationship between art and society. This has been his life project, his great contribution to the history of contemporary art: the masterful conceptual and formal twist he gave to geometric abstraction. In the eighties, Halley began to revise geometric abstract art (the minimalist tradition of Donald Judd and Frank Stella). In his series of plumbed cells he introduced the idea of conductors linking prison cells, as metaphors for the institutional regulation of life. They were abstract representations of the post-industrial landscape and brought out the invisible geometry that underlies the social world. Halley draws inspiration from artists such as Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers and Donald Judd, but his concerns are decidedly contemporary: his diagrams evoke the alienation of consumerism, city life and technology. He uses textured industrial paint (Roll-a-Tex) and Day-Glo acrylic (already used by pop artists), which helps to evoke artificial lighting. Halley applies his fluorescent tones with a roller rather than a brush to leave no trace of the artist's hand. Halley's works have fetched up to six-figure prices at auction and are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate and the Pompidou Center. Peter Halley is one of the most influential artists on the international scene. He became known for his geometric painting, done in intense day-glo colors, in the early 1980s. His pictorial activity is often associated with minimalism, neo-geo and neo-conceptualism. Halley is also known as a writer, editor and teacher. He received his BA from Yale University and his MFA from the University of New Orleans in 1978. Halley first exhibited in 1985 at International with Monument, a gallery in the East Village, NY, which he founded in 1984 with Jeff Koons, Ashley Bickerton and Meyer Vaisman. Since then he has had exhibitions at Mary Boone Gallery, Sonnabend Gallery, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Jablonka Galerie, Galerie Thaddeus Ropac and Waddington Galleries. His first major exhibition of his work took place at the CAPC museum in Bordeaux in 1992. Halley is also a noted lecturer, having lectured at the Art Institute of Chicago and the American Academy in Rome. He is also co-founder and editor of Index Magazine. His treatises on art, influenced by French post-structuralism, have been published in two volumes. Since 2001 he has been the director of the painting and printmaking studios at the Yale School of Art. His works can be found, among others, at MoMA, the Guggenheim in NY, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Gallery.