Peter Halley: Cell Grids

“I’ve always had a sense of humor about my work. It amuses me to think that someone looking at one of these paintings might think, ‘Peter Halley has finally given up and become an abstract painter.’” —Peter HalleyPeter Halley: Cell Grids immerses us in the colorful staging of the eponymous 2021–22 exhibition curated by Peter Doroshenko at Dallas Contemporary. “This publication,” Doroshenko observes, “aims to elucidate the true essence of Halley’s Cell Grid paintings through thoughtful interpretation, unlocking the complex interplay between the visual and the conceptual in his work.” According to art critic and historian Barry Schwabsky, the exhibited artworks, realized between 2015 and 2021, mark a new phase—which time will reveal as either a momentous shift or ultimately a continuation—in the career of Halley, a protagonist of contemporary abstract and geometric painting.