Peter Shear

Peter Shear is known for his intimate, human-scale canvases that resist easy classification. Spare and elusive, his work occupies an interstitial space between abstraction and representation. His paintings can suggest figures, landscapes, material culture, processes, kineticism, or simply exist as spontaneous configurations of lines and colors. Shear brings a devotional engagement to the medium, valuing compression, fragmentation, and the emotional charge of abbreviated form; his palettes range from faint tonalities to jolts of saturated, contrasting hues. His compositions invite personal associations rather than prescriptive readings, forging an economy where the viewer-painting relationship becomes central to the works’ conversation.

Peter Shear (b. 1980, Beverly Farms, USA) lives and works in Bloomington.

Recent solo exhibitions include Voice Leading, Mendes Wood DM, Casa Iramaia, São Paulo (2026); Slipway, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2026); The Company, Denison University, Granville (2026); A Point Between the Eyes, Mendes Wood DM, Germantown (2025); Accident Report, American Art Catalogues, New York (2024); Reality Show, Blum, Los Angeles (2024); Following Sea, Cheim & Read, New York (2023); The Cat Came Back, Castle, Los Angeles (2022); Peter Shear: Empty Boat, Koki Arts, Tokyo (2021); Recording, Fortnight Institute, New York (2021); Time Stamp, Herron School of Art + Design, Indiana University, Indianapolis (2019).  

Recent group exhibitions include Paracosms, Mendes Wood DM, New York (2026); Surface and Signal, Blum, Tokyo (2025); Breath, Art Cake, Brooklyn (2025); Find and Keep: Janine Iversen and Peter Shear, CLEARING, New York (2024); The Wrong Tree, dunes.fyi, Portland (2024); The Feminine in Abstract Painting, Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation, New York (2023); Real Life, Ilse D’Hollander in dialogue, Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp (2023); Things Seen, Make Room, Los Angeles (2023); A Game for the Living, dunes.fyi, Portland (2023); The Sense of Sight: Landscape, the City, and Abstraction, Make Room, Los Angeles (2023); Regarding Kimber, Cheim & Read, New York (2022); Small Paintings, Venus Over Manhattan, New York (2022); 10 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Koki Arts, Tokyo (2022); Beyond Genres, Outsider Art Fair, New York (2022); Angle of Repose, Poker Flats Gallery, Williamstown (2021); A Wild Note of Longing: Albert Pinkham Ryder and a Century of American Art, New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford (2021); Zwang, C.G. Boerner, New York (2020); Adrian, George, Peter, Sofia e Tamina, P420 Arte Contemporanea, Bologna (2019).