15 November 2014-26 April 2015
Artist talk: 29 January 2015, 6:30PM
Christopher Pekoc: “Hand Made”
Christopher Pekoc’s assemblages are distinctive among the work of his colleagues in Cleveland and far beyond. At a time when many artists are engaging with new media, Pekoc uses gelatin silver and Xerox prints, shellac, sandpaper, punches and other common tools and materials in novel ways to create evocative images. He employs another uncommon approach—stitching, also by hand—to supply content to his compositions, as well as to add visual resonance.
Hands in myriad gestures—extending invitation, protecting or playfully balancing orbs—recur again and again in Pekoc’s assemblages. These complex constructions also convey the presence of the artist’s hand in their making, with scarred surfaces as metaphors of our imperfections. “Christopher Pekoc: Hand Made” features art works from Northeast Ohio collections that reveal ways the artist has amplified his techniques and themes in recent years. These include subjects and materials Pekoc encountered on an Ohio Arts Council sponsored residency in the Czech Republic in 2001. While abroad, he was introduced to red and blue pigments that are not available in the United States, and photographed Jan Saudek, a renowned Czech photographer Pekoc has long admired.
Threats to nature and environmental degradation have become increasingly important to Pekoc. These themes are reflected in his new work. Pekoc has also undertaken reinterpretations of longstanding subjects, such as the figure of Eve, also represented in the exhibition.
Christopher Pekoc (b. 1941, Cleveland) attended Kent State University and has taught studio art classes at Case Western Reserve University since 1989. His work has been featured in numerous one-person exhibitions in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The recipient of the 2007 Cleveland Art Prize for mid-career visual artist and five Ohio Arts Council fellowships, Pekoc was awarded a mural commission for the Cleveland Public Library in 1978 and his work is represented in museums throughout the country and abroad.
This exhibition is organized by the Akron Art Museum and made possible by generous gifts from the Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation, the John P. Murphy Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council.
(adapted from the gallery’s press materials)
INFORMATION
Akron Art Museum
1 South High Street
Akron, Ohio USA 44308
(330) 376-9185
Hours:
Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 11AM-5PM
Thursday, 11AM-9PM
Image:
Portrait of Kathryn with the Planets
by Christopher Pekoc
24.75″x28.5″
mixed media assemblage
1992
Collection of Jack and Mary Ann Katzenmeyer, Shaker Heights, Ohio. Photo by Joe Levack/Studio Akron