Peter Hoffer was born in Brantford, Ontario in 1965. He holds an MFA from Concordia University in Montreal, as well as degrees from the University of Guelph, Ontario, and the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. He currently lives in Berlin.

The surfaces of Peter Hoffer’s landscape and abstract paintings are coated with a highly reflective resin varnish. This material was chosen as a means to create tension between a painted surface and refined encapsulation. This packaging of the “objet d’art” stills a moment in space and time and alludes to an item of value, not unlike religious reliquary.

Reference is made to theatrical backdrops. The rapid execution of these paintings creates a generalized suggestion of a place or setting. The viewer is both the actor in the scene and becomes a player within a scenario where the trees and landscape are personified and situated within the stages.

A notion of pending drama looms in the err of these works. The time of day or location of the “self” are called into question as the viewer sees beyond the distraction of the glossed surfaces.

A landscape is continually evolving. Its topography consists of repetitive gestures of surfacing, resurfacing and erosion. Exposed to the elements, scarred by the wind and shifting soils, the landscape reveals it’s own narrative.

Both naturally and artificially, the regeneration of a forest or landscape is subtle to our notice, as it continues to evolve and in some instances, reclaim its natural state.

The same holds true for urban landscape. The urban planners choreograph the city to accepted standards. these often erode through time and environmental challenges. The surface of structures also succumb to natural and manmade erosion, imposed upon through deliberate acts of various interventions.

The recent works of Hoffer are about the urban landscape, and our direct relationship with it.