Robert Pelegrin - Desert Visions

Opening reception: Friday, December 2, 5-8 pm

Gallery Hours: Tuesday 12/6 & 12/13, 12-4

Saturday 12/10, 12-3

and by appointment through February 4th

Deep Dive Art Projects is pleased to present an exhibition of monoprints by Cleveland native Robert Pelegrin (1949-2007). Pelegrin was a masterful printmaker who settled in New Mexico and created a collection of prints that includes desert landscapes, native flora and fauna, and abstract experiments. His techniques reveal the surfaces and atmosphere of the natural environment around Taos and Albuquerque, resulting in unique and stunning images. Pelegrin's family continues to celebrate his legacy by sharing his artwork with audiences and collectors. Proceeds from all sales will be donated to Rainey Institute.

After working at The Experimental Etching Studio in Boston in the 1980's, Robert Pelegrin moved to Taos. In the beauty of the Southwest, the artist found his muse. The subject would predominately encompass his creative output for the next twenty years. While viewing of the landscape may have occurred en plein air, Pelegrin chose to work in the privacy of the studio to directly posit his images from imagination. Generally withdrawing from the use of color, Pelegrin chose a monochrome palette that suggests the influences of photography. A retrospective exhibit inspired one critic to note, “his monotypes look like photographs mysteriously touched by the dream world of surrealism.”

This surrealistic play, magnified by Pelegrin’s nuanced chiaroscuro, charged an anthropomorphic vision into the shapes of the landscape. “Twilight can play tricks on the eyes, you can see shapes in the sandstone hills [such that] you don’t always know what you are seeing,” he described. Capturing the geographical landmarks appeared at times secondary to the choreography occurring within the artist’s interior vision. Pelegrin stated, “this work is about the land’s memory and the record that remains….the earth on which we walk provides an imprint of the past that is as alive today as it was millions of years ago.”