a few words from our intern about Peter Krebs' show

Our terrific UVA intern, Whitney Strickler, started working at the gallery last week. I thought I'd let her share her perspective on her first show. I'll post more images from the show in the album.

The opening of Peter Krebs’ Interactions exhibit was my first behind the scenes experience of a gallery opening.  Meeting the artist and coming to understand his perspective and motives behind his works after having formed my own views gave me insight into the art world, how an artist works through ideas and expresses them. 

The concept behind Peter’s “chairs” from Bryant Park in particular fascinates me, one of his drawings shows two chairs isolated in loneliness, their former occupants removed from each other.  In contrast another drawing shows a small table with several chairs crowded around it telling the story of a group trying to fit as many people around the table as possible.  The first drawing is of peace and quiet, perhaps even sadness, versus a drawing that echoes of laughter and joy.

These chair drawings are very powerful showing the record of human interaction and daily life.  I look at them and instantly want to know what happened, who was sitting there and why.  I wonder if the people left the chairs in a good mood or a bad one.  On the surface Peter Krebs’ works have a simple concept but they provoke thought about our daily interactions, things we don’t typically take the time to think about and perhaps take for granted.  Even on the opening night the four chairs placed in the middle of the gallery floor were moved, bumped into, and leaned on by the visitors, recording the night’s activities and bringing the pictures to life.