Pete Wheeler: We Will Meet Again When There Is No Darkness

"In technical terms, Wheeler's mode of painting is the result of an effort to bring together figurative and abstract painting, to acquire a space on the verge between real and representation.

This labouring towards elimination of the distance between the space of the work and that of life – by setting on the stage the very tools of painting, their properties and limitations – is an issue that was addressed by the historic and avant-gardes, which then resurfaced in the 60s and later again at the end of the 90s.

The new generation of artists, that Pete too belongs to, can address the question without having to concern themselves with the ideological issues regarding categories of interpretation that previously separated abstract painting from figurative.

This has also been made possible by the teaching of artists such as Gerhard Richter, Luc Tuymans, Peter Doig and William Sasnal who have always worked upon the attempt to discover a third approach to interpretation, between figurative and abstract, leveraging the imperfection of the photographic gaze".

Lorenzo Bruni, Pete Wheeler: Paths of the Destroyer, catalogue (excerpt)