Biography: Peter Lenzo

       Peter Lenzo         

Peter Lenzo in his studio in 

Columbia, S.C., August 2015

            Columbia, S.C., resident Peter Lenzo (b. 1955) is a widely recognized ceramic sculptor with a national profile. The New York City native, who grew up in Detroit, was selected for the 1995 and 1998 South Carolina Triennial exhibitions at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia; the 2011 exhibition Triennial Revisited and the 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial 2011 and 2013, all at 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia; and Thresholds, a 2003 exhibition of Southeastern art dealing with religion and spirituality that traveled extensively throughout the Southeast.  

            The June, 2015, exhibition Peter Lenzo & Joe Scotchie-Lenzo: Origins 2000–2002 at if ART Gallery presented the origins of Lenzo’s current work through two dozen sculptures he produced with his son, who was around five years old at the time. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue.

            Lenzo’s work is in several museum collections, including at the South Carolina State Museum, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, N.C., and the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. His solo exhibitions include those at the Spartanburg (S.C.) Museum of Art; the European Ceramic Work Center in Den Bosch, The Netherlands; Great American Gallery in Atlanta; and Ferrin Contemporary gallery in Massachusetts.

            Lenzo and his work have been featured in numerous books, exhibition catalogues and articles about ceramic sculpture and Southern art. They include the Threshold catalogue, 500 Figures In Clay (2005), Robert Hunter’s Ceramics in America (2006) and Poetic Expressions of Mortality: Figurative Ceramics From the Porter–Price Collection (2006). He holds an MFA from Wayne State University in Detroit and used to teach at the University of South Carolina, Columbia.