One and Only #1 :
Bruno Peinado
(Untitled) All Tomorrow's Parties

October 26th - November 18th, 2012

French artist, Bruno Peinado has made his name for reveling in the contradictions of meaning and non-meaning, and the imagery and symbols of the contemporary world absorbed into his own special blend of personalized cultural iconography. Regular visitors to Parker’s Box will remember his aluminum cutout Dreamcatchers, (that mix the form of the native American ritualistic object with ornamentation inspired by corporate and commercial logos); as well as his previous exhibitions including Big Bang, where a tiny resin explosion commanded the whole of the gallery space, as well as Lo-Revolution, featuring a series of pulsating advertising light-boxes carrying no message.

Peinado draws from the immediate world around him and he is particularly eclectic with his choice of subject matter. His interest lies in the plethora of imagery, which assails us from the many facets of popular culture. He is ultimately involved in regurgitating / repackaging this imagery so that it ricochets back at us from within the contemporary art context. One extreme example is the sculpture The Big One World (2000), Peinado's famous black Michelin man, which in many ways is the torchbearer of his artistic stance. Wall drawings, stickers, packs of cards, plastic bags as well as drawings, prints, posters etc., are all good for the presentation and/or commodifying of the objects of Peinado's appetite for images and the potential of their meaning.

Another thread of the diverse practice of Bruno Peinado can be identified in his irreverent use of damage or destruction as a metaphor for both society and the art world. In his series (Untitled) California Custom Game Over, 2006 a series of aluminum blocks make unavoidable reference to the pristine and expensive works of John McCracken, except that Peinado’s versions have been crushed and their rarefied beauty blemished. In a similar way, the artist has made stunning, beautiful “marble” floors, for example, made from smashed black glass panels. In (Untitled), All Tomorrow’s Parties, the work currently on view at Parker’s Box, the twisted neons operate on both these levels simultaneously – looking distinctly like a broken Dan Flavin installation, the pile of broken light fixtures also of course revisit one of the most banal objects of daily life. The title, in addition to it’s Velvet Underground reference, suggests the aftermath of a particularly wild celebration resulting in these twisted forms of metal and neon, with real beauty in destruction once again surfacing as the unexpected consequence.

Bruno Peinado was born in Montpellier France, in 1970 and lives in the small fishing town of Douarnenez, Brittany. He has gained enormous recognition in Europe through major solo shows such as those at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris or the Migros Museum, Zurich, as well as acclaimed solo gallery shows (Loevenbruck, Paris; Continua, San Gimignano; ADN, Barcelona…)

(Untitled) All Tomorrow's Parties, 2010,
neon tubes and light fixtures,
edition 3 of 3, 13 x 84 x 56 inches.

(Untitled) All Tomorrow's Parties, 2010,
neon tubes and light fixtures,
edition 3 of 3, 13 x 84 x 56 inches.

(Untitled) Big Bang 2 [detail] 2006,
cast resin, plexiglass,
1 inch diameter (2.5 cm), edition 1 of 4

(Untitled) Flat Black California Custom Game Over, 2005, aluminum, automobile paint, 86 19/32 x 23 19/32
x 12 13/32 inches (220 x 60 x 39 cm)