In the early 1980s, Peter Halley established a distinct visual language consisting of cells, conduits, and prisons that he has continued to explore throughout his career. The seemingly limitless possibilities of these elements are present in 'Black Prison', where the interlocking canvases combine to create an off-balance, precarious structure. With the predominant use of the colour black, Halley expands on ideas established by Malevich and Albers, exploring both black’s symbolic and ideological meaning as well as the colour’s nuanced range of depth and materiality. The various shades of black are then set off by flashes of neon pinks, reds, and electric blues, reflecting our unpredictable and changing world.

Peter Halley (b. 1953, New York, NY) studied first at Yale University and then at the University of New Orleans where he received his MFA. A prolific colourist, he is also a respected art critic and theorist, revered for his essays and as the publisher of the magazine INDEX, which featured interviews of people in a wide range of creative fields. His paintings are found in collections worldwide including MoMA, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Tate Modern, London, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, among many others. Recently, Halley was the subject of a major retrospective at the MUDAM Luxembourg in 2023 focused on his formative works from the 1980s.