Studio Peter Varga

A selection of recent work is now on view in Denver at Studio Como

Dark Matter 05
Archaic fine plasters on solid birch cradle
48 × 60 × 2 in / 122 × 152 × 5 cm
Available

Our work draws from the weight of stone, the movement of nature, and the emotional presence of architecture and the felt interior.

We similarly admire the way Studio Como brings material, art, and architecture into conversation, and we’re glad to see the works living in such a synonymous space.

Texture dump for your Sunday morning feed

Previews of the elevator shaft we’re on our way to wrapping up.

Some projects can be years before we see them move off paper and onto an architectural surface. Even 6 months feels like a long time. This is the exciting part of a project. When the work starts to feel cohesive and most of an idea has been translated to the wall.

New textural pattern we’ve been developing, we’re calling it Terra. Inspired by striations in rock, layers of earth. We can see this one at large on a feature wall moving organically across, cascading down a fireplace. It’s hard to always capture what we can accomplish at a large scale in an architectural space within a small sample, but we do our best.

This was my first piece created back in 2021, it was called Dark Matter 01. At least the first piece that’s representative of my work today - I’ve been working with plaster since 1999.

As we put together a client proposal this week, I resurfaced these images. The installation we are working on now isn’t far off, and I find that I keep coming back to this work.

Previously, my work was very figural. I’ve always loved the human body, but my work now is much more abstract and architectural. My goal is to evoke an emotional resonance with the viewer - either on a cradle or as an installation built directly onto the wall. To create a sense of immediacy, a presence - and to inspire an awe that we used to feel in architectural spaces that we don’t always get to feel in our daily lives any more.

Much of our daily motion is no longer centered around feeling - think rushing through traffic, shopping in a grocery store under fluorescent lights to the hum of terrible pop music, it’s all rather numbing.

I believe ultimately that the human experience is to feel, and my ultimate goal is to create work that allows us to do just that.

I spend a lot of time on concepts for installations in my studio, but in reality they only go so far. It’s important for me to spend time with the architecture and the spatial environment that a large scale piece will live.

We’re really enjoying this one. A 3-story, art-based plaster installation for an elevator shaft surround in Denver in the works in collaboration with an incredible architectural team.

Finessing and finalizing concept on site this past week

So, in your dream kitchen, would you rather have:

A. A mineral plaster range hood
B. A mineral plaster range hood
C. A mineral plaster range hood
D. A mineral plaster range hood
E. All of the above

If your answer was A, B, C, D, or especially E, you chose correctly.

Naturally, this warm and carefully thought out kitchen in Westlake, Ohio got the mineral plaster range hood.

Interiors: Karen Kneiss

There is something fundamentally different about working with materials that have remained largely unchanged for centuries. Mineral- and lime-based plasters are natural, breathable, and deeply compatible with the architecture they become part of.

Lime plaster has been used in architecture for thousands of years, from Roman interiors to the walls of homes throughout Europe. Long before walls were sealed beneath layers of paint and polymers, plaster was part of the architecture itself - regulating moisture, aging gradually, and developing greater depth with time.

It is one of the oldest building materials we have, and still one of the most relevant - even in contemporary building and architectural practice.

The quieter the finish, the easier it is to underestimate what it took to get there.

Two coats may be standard, but material, substrate, and light ultimately determine when a surface is finished. We continued layering this one until the color, movement, and softness felt exactly right in the room.

Limewash walls throughout this warm and carefully curated Moreland Hills home - shaped by a client and designer with a beautifully restrained point of view.

Interior: gabriellerosestudio

I’m coming to realize that in the Mammatus series - for every piece that turns out, there is one that fails. There are a lot of these pieces that won’t see the light of day, that won’t make it past the working table in my studio.

This one, however turned out well. A study on scale, in response to a failed work.

Mammatus 06
52x52x6” / 132x132x15 cm
Archaic fine plasters on dimensional canvas

Available, comment or DM with interest