Peter Combe is a contemporary artist and photographer celebrated for his groundbreaking three-dimensional installations crafted from an unexpected everyday medium: commercially produced household paint swatches. By subverting these mass-produced color samples, Combe bridges the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and digital pointillism, creating optical illusions that continuously shift based on the movement of the spectator.
At the core of Combe’s practice is a meticulous, highly architectural technique. He hand-punches thousands of tiny, circular disks from paint color palettes, choosing from a spectrum of greater than 1,100 tones. He then arranges these disks into precision, bevel-cut grooves on specially prepared archival boards.
The disks are set at a distinct 45-degree angle. By angling the paper scales, Combe creates a canvas that captures, reflects, and bends ambient light. Look closely at his work, and you will see what resembles an intricate, iridescent field of overlapping fish scales, revealing both the pigmented face and the text-printed reverse side of the swatch. Step back, and those independent fragments seamlessly bleed into complex, photographic portraiture or vibrant geometric abstractions.
Because his compositions are completely dependent on the angle of incoming light and the viewer’s physical perspective, they possess a distinct kinetic quality. The artwork transforms continuously throughout the day—reaching what Combe describes as a "still point" during twilight, when the shifting gradients dramatically come alive.
Since relocating his primary studio to San Francisco in 2008, Combe's innovative paper-based works have been exhibited in major contemporary art hubs worldwide, including New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, and Israel.
His works are included in prominent public, corporate, and private foundations, such as:
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The Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA)
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The New Museum (Ode to NYC installation, New York, NY)
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Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA)
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Starbucks Corporation (Seattle, WA)
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The Morton & Marcy Friedman Foundation