Cell with Explosions

Peter Halley

1993

A relief halftone print in which Peter Halley arranges boxed “cells” — some flat and enclosed, others filled with colorful radiating “explosions” — to suggest the confinement and energy of contemporary networks and media.

You’d first notice the strict grid and two larger central rectangles set against smaller panels bursting with tie‑dye‑like starbursts in vivid, flat colors, the sharp black outlines and subtle printed texture making the static boxes and dynamic explosions feel in tense dialogue.

Halley converted Minimalist geometry into an iconography of late‑20th‑century infrastructures—cells, conduits, and information bursts—that visualized social and technological systems and helped define Neo‑Geo/postmodern strategies in painting and printmaking.

Palette

Art Terms

Print Relief print Geometric abstraction Postmodernism Contemporary art Minimalism Maps, borders,and networks

Exhibitions

Committed to Print

1988

Works from Change, Inc.

1974

Pop Art Prints, Drawings, and Multiples

1970

Handmade Paper Prints and Unique Works

1976