Don Perley began his career as a self-taught artist in 1975. His early work focused on hard-edge acrylic paintings and small conceptual pieces. In the ‘90’s, Don transitioned into painted assemblages created with everyday objects and abstract oil paintings bursting with color. A Midwest native, since 2004 he has lived and worked in Stamford, Connecticut.
Don’s work has appeared often in group shows and juried competitions in Connecticut and New York, including The Peter Marcelle Project, Southampton, NY, and the BWAC Brooklyn Re-Cycle show.
These days I am just concerned with liberating color from the cruel tyranny of confinement in the tube!
SOLO SHOWS AND AWARDS
Solo show, Pleiades Gallery, NYC, 2022
97th Annual Juried Exhibition, Greenwich Art Society. D. H. Griswold award for best painting - “Mirage,” 2014
East End Arts, Riverhead, NY, 3rd Annual National Juried Art Competition - Best in Show, “Juju,” 2014, award and artist-in-residence
Solo show, Albert Shahinian Fine Art, Rhinebeck NY, 2014
Solo show, Albert Shahinian Fine Art, Poughkeepsie NY, 2004
Solo show, Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, 1991
Solo show, Momenta Art Alternatives, Philadelphia, 1989
SELECTIONS FROM JURIED COMPETITIONS
The Ridgefield Guild of Artists 43rd Annual Juried Show - “The Colorworks,” 2020
Flinn Gallery Juried Exhibition, Greenwich Art Society - “Forgotten Dreams,” 2016
98th Annual Juried Exhibition, Greenwich Art Society - “Rough Sketch,” 2015
SPECTRUM Exhibition, New Canaan Society for the Arts - “Wired,” 2018
ARTIST STATEMENT
Don Perley’s work is improvisational, layered and complex. Secrets are revealed slowly, both in oil painting and deep relief assemblage. He is immersed in the raw and rough. However, just as in the improvisations of nature seen from a hiking trail, the raw and rough, upon close observation, are also delicate, soothing and healing.
Don’s paintings push the eye from one passage to another on a journey of color juxtapositions, while exploiting the physical properties of paint and ink, pushing them to their limit. His assemblage pieces deform familiar raw materials, exposing their essence and possibilities.
Ultimately what Don creates are arenas and conditions for colors and materials to display their properties freely and combine
in unplanned and joyous ways. His intention is not so much the creation of art but more a search for spontaneous life springing out of improvisations in pure color. This is a fundamentally exuberant enterprise, and the artist sees it as direct painting, direct expression and direct communication.