The Fine Arts Gallery of Saint Peter’s University is pleased to present Seeing Someone Else Is Seeing Yourself, featuring the work of P. E. Pinkman. This year is the Sesquicentennial Anniversary for the University and the 6th season for the Fine Arts Gallery. Center (2005 to present), where he currently is a Co-President and VP of Visual Arts Programming.
The exhibition runs from February 3 through March 25, 2022, with the opening reception on February 3 from 6 to 8pm.
Mr. Pinkman’s paintings and drawings bring together observed moments and perceived connections with personal insights, art historical references, and structural elements. He expresses himself in his work with a didactic approach that isn’t always clarified. A portrait isn’t just a depiction of the person, but rather a picture of that person viewed through an interpolated lens. His drawings include both the quotidian and the humorous. His paintings suggest something deep and intimate, psychologically inquisitive, and suggestive. “Growing up gay in the 1960s and 70s meant constantly struggling with yourself as you related to the rest of the world,” he explains. “It required carefully reading all the signs and signifiers people were throwing at you to piece together a whole and safe life for yourself. The other was always a threat, or a lover. Sometimes both.”
The large group of drawings seen here, part of a 100-image cycle completed during the pandemic, uses his own image as an avatar for the anxieties and fears present during the 2020 election cycle and the ongoing COVID pandemic.
These works incorporate narrative elements merged with formal and abstract style. The source of Pinkman’s creativity is his introspective and observational nature and a desire to use image to introduce a story that is otherwise not easily accessed. His paintings include semi-abstract biomorphic forms, stencils, appropriated and original images, and portraits layered with formal, expressive lines and forms.