A pioneering California-based Light and Space artist, Peter Alexander spent his career focusing intensely on light and its manifold effects by way of his sculptures, paintings, drawings, and prints. He worked largely with polyester resin (and later the less-toxic polyurethane), producing subtle, luminous, pastel-hued sculptures, such as this cube, that can seem to be crafted from light itself. “There is something rejuvenating about peering into one of Peter Alexander’s polyester resin cubes at the end of a New York winter,” wrote Will Harrison in reviewing a show at the Franklin Parrasch Gallery, something like “plunging inside the miniaturized distillation of a southern California skyscape.” Robin Clark, who included Alexander’s work in “Phenomenal: California, Light, Space Surface” at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in 2011, described his use of color as “sumptuous,” viewing him as “one of the most extraordinary colorists.” And if there’s a thread that stitches together the disparate works from throughout his career, it may well be his thoughtful employment of tones: fruity oranges, dusty pinks, oceanic greens, incandescent yellows.
