Peter Reginato’s Chroma: A Celebration of Colour, Play and Painterly Freedom

If Jackson Pollock, Henri Matisse and Joan Miro had a paint party, it might look something like Peter Reginato’s “Chroma”. Explosive colour, playful energy, and a touch of irreverence—his first solo show in Athens was pure visual delight. 

Read on for my thoughts, photos and video…

My first impression

It felt like Paradise! Colours poured off the canvas—rich, sumptuous, vibrant—pulling you into a universe where they danced and swirled in unexpected harmony.  You really need to see his artwork in person to get a true sense of its energy. It was like diving into a sea of colours playing with each other in surprising combinations and forms that always seem to be in harmony.

The exhibition “Chroma”

I visited American artist Peter Reginato’s first-ever solo show in Athens, “Chroma”, hosted by Sianti Gallery. The show was a vibrant celebration of colour, rhythm and artistic freedom . 

Reginato describes this body of work as his most exciting yet: a continuation of his decades-long exploration of abstraction with fresh ideas and playful twists. According to Peter, what started as a joke -what he calls “Cubism for dummies” – turned into a whole new way of painting, where stripes and forms overlap like two paintings stacked into one. 

“I saw that I was painting a painting on top of a painting,” he says. 

This duality gives his work a lively figure-ground tension where meaning and imagery shift depending on the viewer’s gaze. 

The exhibition also featured original poems by American poet and academic Michael Sicker, written in direct response to Reginato’s  paintings. These lyrical texts add a second voice to the exhibition, helping viewers slow down and reflect, forging connections between visual and verbal expression. 

“Furnace” by Michael Sickler

these petulant waves pulse as if a comet had its tail cut off-

helium vibrating in a box issuing from a furnace like an orange dwarf

in its magnetic field are hidden secrets-

the geometry of fire an -unforgiving fire-

a heat so bold it can cut through glass

with its radiating plume in tow and its unintended pleasure –

afternoons of dreaming about rainbows in India

in truth its burnt-light is rude- a kind of speed-heat that stuns one with its power-makes of our hearts startled flesh-yet other times it seems more benign-we sense a benevolence in late summer evenings

when we catch its sadly romantic dying-light on an old oak log.

About Peter Reginato

Born in 1945 in Dallas, Texas and raised in Oakland, California, Peter Reginato studied at the San Francisco Art Institute during the heyday of Abstract Expressionism. He went on to become one of the most inventive voices in American abstraction, celebrated for his bold, wild, playful and colourful sculptures, naturally evolving into painting with a free-spirited approach to his art.

His process

His paintings are deeply connected to his sculptural practice – not just in spirit, but in materials too. He paints on canvas using the same industrial enamel paint he used for his sculptures, creating a glossy surface that glows with energy. His approach combines brushing, pouring and spotting to create unexpected shapes that emerge through mix of control and accident. Colours interact, collide and dance, often suggesting whimsical figures or narratives that even surprise the artist himself. 

While echoes of the past are clear, Reginato’s paintings are unmistakably contemporary—joyful, unguarded, and free from cynicism.

His influences

His artistic lineage includes icons of Abstract Expressionism -Jackson Pollock, Henri Matisse, Hans Hofmann, Clyfford Still, Joan Miro, and Richard Diebenkom among them. 

From Pollock, he borrows not only the energy but also the shift between spontaneity and structure. From Matisse, the unapologetic joy of colour, and from Hofman a sense of space created through colour and form, not illusion. Reginato doesn’t hide his influences: he reinterprets them with a mischievous touch and makes them unmistakably his own. 

Conclusion — My takeaway

“Chroma” isn’t just a show—it’s an invitation to see colour as a language of joy and intuition. Ina world that often feels heavy, Reginato reminds us of the freedom in play, the suprise in process, and the power of colour to move us.

Enjoy the video below where Peter Reginato opens up his studio and his heart in a short interview. He talks about his deep relationship with colour, his love for abstract expression, improvisation, and the spontaneous way his works come to life. The exhibition CHROMA, presented for the first time in Greece at Sianti Gallery, marked his return to painting, featuring vivid colors, asymmetrical lines, and an aesthetic born of rhythm, play, and imagination.