Peeta

ArTicks Gallery is pleased to announce PEETA – A SOLO SHOW, a solo exhibition consisting of new paintings and sculptures by the Italian artist Peeta.

Peeta endeavours to realize the sculptural quality of individual letters, namely the ones that spell out his own name. Being aware of the Greco-Latin origins of today’s modern alphabet which give it a certain abstract, rather than figural, quality, his task departs from this graphical history to follow the formal methods of Chinese and Islamic calligraphy. With his works, the artist always selects the specific letters “P-E-E-T-A” and breaks them from their generic typographical form, stylizing them with shape and volume beyond their mere semantic function. Thus his lettering is brought into the fluidity of the urban, where words are continuously ruptured from their own histories, readapted into idiom and gestures learned from the street.

And it is this urban terrain that Peeta is always drawn to: street walls, trains, abandoned factories. In a way, his work is record of evolving inscription—not in its traditional sense, but in terms of a fluency acquired through the urban vernacular. Peeta calls this a “geometry of writing”, where the rules are changeable and words are modified, deconstructed and regenerated as they intersect with convention and the new.

Peeta, also known as Manuel Di Rita, has been active as a graffiti artist since 1993 and is currently living in Venice. He is a member of the EAD crew (Padova, Italy), FX and RWK crews (New York City) and has participated in graffiti jams and Meeting of Styles events in Europe and the Americas. His work explores the potential of sculptural lettering, both in painting and in three dimensions. Peeta has exhibited at the Santorini Biennale (2012); Megastore Gallery – The Hague (2007); Magazzini del Sale – Venice (2007-2008); Edgeart Gallery – Manchester (2008); PrettyPortal Gallery – Düsseldorf (2009); Baron Gallery and Ayden Gallery – Vancouver (2010-2011); Da Baker Gallery – New York (2010); and H+ Gallery – Lyon (2011), among many others.

“PEETA – A SOLO SHOW” runs from 10th August – 30th August, 2012
Vernissage: Friday 10th August from 18:00 – 21:30

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