Tahiti Pehrson spent his early years without electricity growing up in a bohemian artist household in Northern California. Art was a mode of entertainment without television or music and long hours were spent in nature and drawing. Influenced by the burgeoning skateboarding and punk scene of the mid Nineteen-eighties and later engaging in the San Francisco street art and graffiti culture of the late Nineties. Traveling Europe and China in search of art enrichment and later attending the San Francisco Art Institute as a painting major, Pehrson left after a year and a half. A practice of stencil-making and street art evolved into a more and more detailed practice of paper cutting two and three-dimensional works. [caption id="attachment_3657" align="alignleft" width="480"] Tahiti Pehrson
Symbiosis 2014
Hand-cut Paper / 100% Cotton Rag, Acid-free.
508 x 508 mm[/caption] Pehrson has been working and exhibiting in hand cut paper for the last fifteen years. Over the last five plus years his works have concentrated on highly detailed geometric patterns called Guilloche which date back to Classical Greek and Roman times, later to be perfected by the Rose Engine Lathe in France in the late 1700’s. Today these patterns can be seen on almost every currency in the world as well as hub cups watches and also seem to touch on the design sense intrinsic to nature. These highly detailed monochromatic works create with light and shadow a hypnotic field of Moire patterning. [caption id="attachment_3652" align="alignleft" width="480"] Tahiti Pehrson
Lyracolos 2013
Hand-cut Paper / 100% Cotton Rag, Acid-free.
914mm x 914mm[/caption] With many intersections creating a larger fabric, themes in the work center around Connectivity, Systems, Variation and fragility. [caption id="attachment_3653" align="alignleft" width="480"] Tahiti Pehrson
Formation 2013
Hand-cut Paper / 100% Cotton Rag, Acid-free.
508 x 508 mm[/caption] The start of 2014 sees Pehrson being incredibly prolific with three solo shows on the horizon, two of which will take place in February, one in Cape Town at Salon91 of course, and another at the Mouki Gallery in London, and the third during March at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, California. Tahiti Pehrson’s work will also be on view at the Salon91 space at the Cape Town Art Fair 2014 towards the end of February. [caption id="attachment_3654" align="alignleft" width="480"] Tahiti Pehrson
Equis 2013
Hand-cut Paper / 100% Cotton Rag, Acid-free.
914mm x 914mm[/caption]