Peter Combe

Artist Biography

Peter Combe (b. 1962, Canada) is a Canadian-British contemporary artist based in San Francisco since 2008. Combe creates three-dimensional images using household paint swatches, which are hand-punched into small colored disks. He places these paint-samples into bevel-cut grooves on a specially prepared archival material so that the selected colors appear at 45-degree angles, as well as on the reverse side of each color-swatch. Combe engages the sculptural possibilities of disks building the illusion of images that appear to move and change depending on the viewer’s perspective. From a distance, Combe’s subjects gaze at the viewer inviting them to approach the artwork. Upon closer inspection, the stunning details expose themselves showing each integral part of Combe’s image.

Combe’s work ranges from abstract pattern-based color compositions to realistic portraits of people. Apart from producing portraits commissioned by collectors, many of his subjects are sourced from social media. By inserting the chips into specially made surfaces, Combe makes pixelated representations of his subjects, often recreating photographs. In order to create portraits made from paint swatches, Peter Combe works speedily, thinking of tones rather than colors. For this reason he has organized his palette of over 1,100 colors into 28 groups based on tonal increments and light-reflecting values. The playful tension produced between the three-dimensional appearance of the finished work and the visual flattening that occurs through the digital references are part of his ongoing examinations into the material characteristics that define ephemerality and permanence; as well as representation and abstraction.

Combe’s works can be found in in many public and private collections throughout the United States including Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, Delta Airlines, Atlanta, GA, Home Depot, Atlanta, GA, Microsoft, Redmond, Laurence Hallier, CEO and Founder of Show MediaGroup, Yves Navarre, Author, David Nazarian, Author & CEO Nimes Capital, Sam Nazarian, Founder and CEO of SBE Entertainment, Ryan Seacrest, Entertainer, and Mark Smucker, J.M. Smucker Co. Combe has exhibitited in the USA and abroad, including at Jaffa Museum, Israel, Stedelijk Museum, Netherlands, Orange County Museum of Art, United States, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, United States, and Museum of Fine Art, Florida State University, United States to name a few.

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