Peter Lenzo

FANTASTIC REALITY

Introducing: Diane Kilgore-Condon & Bob Trotman

Featuring: Jeff Donovan, Janet Orselli, Peter Lenzo, Philip Morsberger, Dorothy Netherland, David Yaghjian, Kees Salentijn & Marcelo Novo.

August 24 – September 4, 2012,

@Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady St., Columbia, SC

Artists' Reception: Friday, Aug. 24, 5 – 9 pm

Gallery Talk Diane Kilgore-Condon: Sat. Aug. 25, 2 pm.

Artist Salon Series Talk Bob Trotman @ Columbia Museum of Art: Friday, August 31, noon.

To see installation shots CLICK HERE

To see ceramic sculptures by Lenzo, scroll down.

To read about Lenzo's path to creating ceramic heads,
CLICK HERE.

For an artist's statement about the work, CLICK HERE.

Old, Beaten, Bruised and Abused, 2012,
stoneware, nichrome wire, glazes,
porcelain slip, and found objects,
191/2 x 14 1/2 x 9 in., $1,400
For additional views CLICK HERE

Half a Brain, Still Going Strong, 2011
Stoneware, nichrome wire, glazes,
porcelain slip, and found objects
22 x 12 x 9 in., $1,400
For additional views CLICK HERE

Red Chicken Dreaming, 2012, stoneware,
nichrome wire, glazes, porcelain slip, and
found objects, 18 x 12 x 8 in., $1,300
For additional views CLICK HERE

Hanging With My Family, 2012, stoneware,
nichrome wire, glazes, porcelain slip, and
found objects, 13 x 10 x 6 in., $800
For additional views CLICK HERE

Life Savings, 2012, stoneware,
nichrome wire, glazes, porcelain
slip, and found objects, 11 x 5 x 6 in.
$650
For additional views CLICK HERE

No Knowledge, All Instinct, Who Am I, 2012,
stoneware, nichrome wire, glazes, porcelain slip,
and found objects, 19 1/2 x 16 x 9 in., $1,400
For additional views CLICK HERE

♥, 2012, stoneware, nichrome wire, glazes,
porcelain slip, and found objects, 12 x 9 x 6 in.
$600
For additional views CLICK HERE

Miss Alot, Forget Even More, 2012,
stoneware, nichrome wire, glazes,
porcelain slip, and found objects,
12 1/2 6 1/2 x 5 1/2 in., $650
For additional views CLICK HERE

Seizure Time, 2012, stoneware,
nichrome wire, glazes, porcelain slip,
and found objects, 7 x 4 x 5 in., $600
For additional views CLICK HERE

Once Was Lost But Now I Am Blind, 2011,
stoneware, nichrome wire,glazes, porcelain
slip and found objects, 14 x 9 x 7 in.,
$1,100
For additional views, CLICK HERE

Secret Voices Debating Decisions Behind
My Back Check Behind Door #1 For
The Truth, 2011, stoneware, nichrome wire,
glazes, porcelain slip, and found objects
14 x 7 x 7 in., $1,000
For additional views CLICK HERE

Near the End Dredging the Bottom Life &
Death- Life & Death Daily Choice,
2011, stoneware, nichrome wire, glazes,
porcelain slip and found objects
10 1/2 x 8 x 6 in., $800
For additional views CLICK HERE

Home at Last, I'm Home at Last-Thank the Lord
I'm Home at Last!!! It's Like I Never Left,
2012, stoneware, nichrome wire,
glazes, porcelain slip and found objects
15 x 8 x 7 in., $900
For additional views CLICK HERE

Oak Park #4, Brain Damage Recovery
(A Little) Xoxox, 2011,
Stoneware, nichrome wire, glazes, porcelain slip
and found objects, 7 1/2 x 5 x 4 1/2 in., $500
For Additional Views CLICK HERE

Oak Park #2, Reborn With Legs (3), 2011,
Stoneware, nichrome wire, glazes, porcelain slip
and found objects, 8 1/2 x 5 x 4 in., $500
For Additional Views CLICK HERE

Why Can't We Be Friends?, 2010,
Stoneware, nichrome wire, porcelain slip and
found objects
27 x 12 x 9 in., $5,000
For additional views CLICK HERE

Peter Lenzo, Maybe, 2011, 9 x 9 x 9 in.,

stoneware, nichrome wire, porcelain,

glazes, found object, $800
For additional views CLICK HERE

Peter Lenzo, Pain Inside Here, 2011,

stoneware, nichrome wire, porcelain,

glazes, found object,

11 x 9 x 8 in., $750
For additional views CLICK HERE

Peter Lenzo, Try To Remember, 2011,

stoneware, nichrome wire, porcelain,

glazes, found object,

12 x 8.5 x 7 in., $700
For additional views CLICK HERE

Peter Lenzo, Wish I Knew I Was, 2011,

stoneware, nichrome wire, porcelain,

glazes, found object,

14 x 7 x 7.5 in., $1,000
For additional views CLICK HERE

Peter Lenzo, "Untitled", 2010,
stoneware, nichrome wire, porcelain,

glazes, found object,

24.5 x 18 x 12 in., $5,000

Peter Lenzo and Michel Bayne, Untitled,

2007, stoneware, nichrome wire,

porcelain, glazes, found object,

13 x 11.5 x 9 in., $1,000
For additional views CLICK HERE

Peter Lenzo, Tribute To Michael Jackson,

2011, stoneware,

porcelain, glazes, found object,

12.5 x 8.5 x 8 in., $900
For additional views CLICK HERE

Peter Lenzo, Suicide II,

2011, stoneware, nichrome wire,

porcelain, glazes, found object,

15 x 11 x 15 in., $1,900
For additional views CLICK HERE

Peter Lenzo, "Untitled", 2010,
stoneware, nichrome wire, porcelain,

glazes, found object,

24.5 x 18 x 12 in. (alternate view),

$5,000

Peter Lenzo, This Is About Asking For

Hell, 2010, stoneware, nichrome
wire, porcelain, glazes, found object,

16 x 10 x 8 in., $1,200
For additional views CLICK HERE

The impetus for my ceramic sculptures came from traditional Southern face jugs. I had switched to working in clay exclusively in the 1990s. I had been making sculptural assemblages but had to stop because I couldn’t use a table saw any longer as I increasingly suffered from seizures, which are the result of brain damage sustained in a bicycle accident in my youth. Table saws and seizures don’t mix.

I always had been intrigued by face jugs, especially those made by Southern slaves. At my middle school, we tried to develop teaching materials that appealed to our African-American students, and so I decided to have them make face jugs. I had never made any, so I first created several myself. The first ones I didn’t quite like, and so I made some more. Each batch got better, but more importantly, when I finished a batch, I couldn’t wait to make the next one. It just seemed to be in my bones. It felt like I had made them before – that I was catching up where I had left off. I wanted to let everything go in my current life and go back to a previous one that I had discovered. I once was lost and now was found.

From the jugs I came to the current, more elaborate sculptures. It started when my then 4-year-old son Joe started to stick pottery chards, which I used for teeth, in one of my jugs. All over: nose, eyes, lips. He went wild. Then he started to stick other objects in them, like a ceramic snake. I began to help him and gradually really liked the results. My style was very different, and I had much more respect for the face, but to this day, Joe claims that he made me famous.