Gala Bent
Gala Benta draws dense, dainty tableaus that make light work of heavy symbolism. Her heart’s in hallucinated oddities with silky, spatial connective and small, bright bursts of color. No matter how she crowds her space, nobody’s home. She’s myth-minded but modest. Her drawings appear to be waiting for you to leave, in order to disappear.
-Regina Hackett, Another Bouncing Ball
Gala Bent brings my worst fears to life, at least on paper. I saw her small show at the Gallery4Cultrue a couple of months ago; her drawings of strange, otherworldly figures o f hair and flesh (but few recognizable features) got me thinking about human hair and severed limbs. Not that Bent’s work is gory -- it isn’t. Her works on paper are delicate line drawings, colored with gouache; they are pretty and orderly and remind me of soothing children’s fairytale illustrations. And like some children’s fairytale illustrations, they are also dark, slightly menacing, and permeated with gestures towards alchemy, sorcery and black magic.
-Eleanor Pachaud
Peter is also currently participating in art.tech at The Lab in San Francisco.