Liav Mizrahi/ Macabri

Shmuel Pe'er assisted Yehiel Shemi, the famous sculptor at kibbutz Cabri and one of the most influential on the Israeli sculpture scene, in the monumental abstract style. Pe'er assisted Mr. Shemi for 4 years, after having studied in Canada, specializing in work with iron.

Through 3 pieces in the exhibition an exceptional talent can be seen, a formal complexity and a melancholic touch in the way of treating the material.

On the floor of one of the gallery's rooms, is an image of a huge bat; a black steel plate divided and attached by hinges that can't move in any direction, fixed in the shape of death. Like a sheet of canvas which has just been torn.

Another of Pe'er's pieces is a steel plate on the wall, that a house shaped plate is welded on and hidden by a painted flower pattern which covers the whole surface. In my opinion, these two sculptures, belong, to the literalistic stream of sculpture as it is defined by Robert Morris. The image of a house is a subject that appears alternately in Pe'er's work.

In the exhibition there is a wonderful linear sculpture, drawn in space and attached to the wall. A composition which looks as if taken from the paintings of Ori Reisman, the Galilean abstract painter, one of the founders of kibbutz Cabri. Pe'er's is a 3 dimensional. This is a thin and quiet sculpture which continues elements of the 50's and 60's of the 20's century. One from a series, this sculpture contradicts the landscape–blocking plates of Shemi. The landscape with all its variations is the nucleus of Pe'er's lyrical work.

Liav Mizrahi, 2014

Hana Kofler/ Devolving Form

Shmuel Pe'er wishes to define space in a condensed and clean way. The house which he created is a drawing of iron in space, hung in the air and hovering between thin tree roots and a treetop clean of leaves. It is a minimalistic work, sort of a fragile emblem of a dream – may be materialized, may be vanished - which rouses a feeling of presence and of absence in space, fullness and emptiness, volume, form and emotion. The simplicity of the piece represents all that is in the idea of the house: warmth, aesthetics, cleanness and a strong longing. At the same time, it is missing the essentials for its existence: the earth as a base and the sky as a cover.

Hana Kofler, Devolving Form, Office in TelAviv Gallery 2011

Nava Harel Shoshani/ "In My Line"

Shmuel Peer draws with iron. Minimalistic sketches, full of expression, often have more than the eye can see. One needs to explore with much attention and discover the hidden anecdote between the sensitive lines, discover the object which prefers to show itself only on a second or third look.

The contour lines are soft, round, despite being made mostly out of iron, a stiff, hard material. This conflict is part of the unique language of Peer, as well as the illusion and secrecy.

Some of the works hold a transition from three-dimensional to two-dimensional and back, by looking at them from a certain angle. The shapes change with the shift in the point of view. Shmuel attempts to define space in a clean, concise manner. He tells a story that always connects to the functionality of space. He deals with shape and volume, position, empty and full. Along all these, the emotion is always present as well.

One of the main images in his creations is the Home, that appears in different versions. Starting with an outdoor statue, open-line house that engaged in a dialogue with the environment in TEL HAI 87, and ending with the small works in which it is concealed among the softened iron lines. The home as an object of longing, a place of matter and spirit, an island of peace and warmth. All these invite the viewer to a poetic exhibition that also embodies riddling and illusion.

Nava Harel Shoshani - Exhibition curator 2009

Drora Dekel / Shmuel Pe'er

Sculpted in iron, authentic, intimate sculpture that seeks the quiet. Drawing with iron, lines in space, and putting patches of colour onto cut-out surfaces.

Peer examines the house, the exterior and the interior. He covers the surfaces with a pattern, like tapestry, with flowers, beans, or painting of pearls. '"the flowers caress", they appear on the surface, softening the iron. Peer's language is minimalistic. Tension is created in his works in relation to the minimalism of the 70's, because of its personal-narrative aspect and not formalistic. It has no interest in protest, reproduction, consumerism, taking an image out of its context, and in spite the fact that his works are aware of Pop Art, his interest is in flattening and décor.

The flattening in his works is reminiscent of the Islamic art's relation to mass. That reduces the mass by flattening the object with ornamental pattern.. The Vermeerian baroque with its restrained qualities, which is clean of dramatic sentimentalism, also influenced his works.

Peer is seeking restraint,simplicity, an almost objective balance and cleanliness that speaks of moments in life. " I've always been looking for a certain peacefullness like the Vermeer's paintings have. The look of his works is "Japanese"- aesthetic and precise.

Shmuel Peer creates a sculptural text, poetic and concentrated like a Japanese "Haiku" poem.

Drora Dekel, 1998

The Holiday of Holidays

Shmuel Pe'er has erected his sculpture "Venus Descends to the Wadi" at the bottom of the Dor Steps which lead from the Haifa Museum into Wadi Nisnas. The sculpture is made as a drawing in space, and looks as though it might be the skeleton of a leaf, or a female figure. The dark drawing in space blends with the street of steps and relates ecologically to the human condition in the universe. The lines in this work define plane and spaces, by means of which Shmuel Pe'er turns the air bounded inside the framework of the "drawing" into sculpted material.

Hana Kofler, The Holiday of Holidays , Haifa 1997