Exhibition Review: Pete Turner: The Color of Light
Old Age, 1968 © Pete Turner
Written by Jaden Zalkind
Copy Edited by Kee’nan Haggen
Photo Edited by Athena Abdien
The visual feast of strikingly saturated colors depicting classic Americana, other-worldly landscapes, and hyper-surreal abstractions captured by artist Pete Turner is on display at the Bruce Silverstein Gallery in New York City in his Color of Light exhibition. The bright, saturated colors offer a new glimpse into the world of photography and give the viewer a new perspective on life. Turner would not only set a new bar for the limits seen in commercial photography, but he would also come to influence numerous artists of his generation and those who came after him.
French Garden, 1988 © Pete Turner
Turner developed his unique style of vivid color by utilizing polarizing filters, colored gels, and multiple exposures to create unnatural effects on seemingly natural photos. This style manufactures a fantasy world with beautiful bright colors that would otherwise not be associated with the settings he captured.
Upon entering the exhibition, visitors are quickly enveloped in an illuminating environment with photographs possessing every neon color imaginable. Turner’s ubiquitous vivid colors offer the visitors a chance to enter a utopia of happiness and joy with his depictions of seemingly simple photos with a pop. Turner’s generational influence lies within his absence of fear to push the limits of photography and be different. He emerged as an artist in the 40s and 50s, escaping the world of black-and-white photography. Turner’s work sits on the opposite end of the spectrum with his intensely bright images.
A Day In My Life, 1961 © Pete Turner
Turner’s "Welcome" piece captures a large old-school sign that reads “Welcome” in red coloring. Behind the welcome sign is an empty blue sky with a few others. The blue sky is in the photograph's background, but it is the first thing your eyes are drawn to. This is an excellent piece to begin his series — commercial signs.
Turner’s “Texascape” piece enthralls the audience and questions their eye. Somehow, Turner manages to make this photo radiant, intense, calming, and gentle simultaneously. The dark sky background, shiny cars, and glimmering overhead lights offset each other and construct a wonderful ambiance. “French Garden” is a highly saturated piece that turns the original image completely on its head. The original image would have possessed a prominence of green and blue, yet Turner turned the whole picture to a washed-out orange. The new color that Turner provides makes the image seem like something it’s not. This French Garden now looks to be an image of a dessert sandstorm with a clear beginning and blurry finish. His ability to capture an already beautiful image and then create his world with it is a talent that is extraordinarily unique and fascinating.
Cannonball, 1961 © Pete Turner
Texascape, 1974 © Pete Turner
Pete Turner’s Color of Light at the Bruce Silverstein Gallery is enthralling as he takes visitors through an intensely vivid and surprising journey of his overexposed and complex compositions. This exhibition displays many of Turner’s most celebrated works over his masterful and inspirational life as a photographer and influencer. The collection encapsulates why Turner was and still is a beloved artist.
