Peter Simpson

Peter Simpson’s practice is firmly embedded in the art of storytelling. Using oil on canvas, Simpson renders subtly strange, enrapturing scenes which dip their toes into the surreal world of dreams, while holding onto some semblance of reality. Limbs of his figures might be slightly too elongated; a mirror reflection could be stretched or misshapen or bizarre embraces between skeletons and men holding colanders could be seen in Simpson’s realm. Narrative serves as an unpredictable guide through each body of work. Simpson will work on multiple paintings simultaneously, enabling characters to resurface across different canvases and for parts of the unfolding tale to be erased or altered. For example, an arm or leg might be repositioned by Simpson, with the original placement remaining hazily in view for audiences to encounter. References to the hallucinatory works of Hieronymous Bosch or Salvador Dalí could be seen in his paintings, and his textural deployment of cerulean blues, forest greens and rich purples adds a softer tone to the paintings— while the gentle outing in Simpson’s Me and Barney and our Sublime Army (2020), portrays Simpson’s otherworldly space is as less herculean, and more fantastical. ...

Ballon Rouge began as a nomadic gallery in September of 2017. In our first two years we put up exhibitions in Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Brussels, Sao Paulo, Paris, and New York. Each of the cities we visited was stewarded by a ‘collective member’ - a curator who introduced us to artists and to their respective city’s art scene. In March of 2019 we made Brussels our home city, inaugurating our permanent space. While we will continue to do shows abroad alongside our collective members, our primary location is now Brussels. Besides our own exhibitions, the space in Brussels sometimes hosts invited international galleries to show with us in exchange for a show of ours at theirs - a further continuation of our ethos of collaboration and collectivity. So far we have collaborated or will soon collaborate with Hannah Barry Gallery (London); Melange (Cologne); Galerist (Istanbul); Gallery Artbeat, (Tbilisi); the Pill (Istanbul); Pi Artworks (Istanbul, London); Vitrine (London, Basel). ...