Sarah Peters

SARAH PETERS April 12 – May 17, 2015 | 11 Rivington St, NY

Eleven Rivington is pleased to present new work by Brooklyn-based artist Sarah Peters, on view from April 12 – May 17, 2015. The show will present five sculptures: representational bronze heads arranged in the gallery’s 11 Rivington Street location. This is the artist’s third solo exhibition in New York and her first with the gallery.

In her sculptures, Sarah Peters questions and subverts ancient, classical, and symbolic figuration and their permutations over different styles and periods, from Greco-Roman portraiture to American Neo-Classicism, and from Auguste Rodin and Elie Nadelman to Marisol. The exhibition will feature close to life-size bronze heads of two bearded men, two women with mouths open, and a child with cutout eyes. Peters observes how, over time, fervent emulation of styles – whether cultural, religious, or art historical – develops to what she refers to as “the pleasure of contemporary misinterpretation”: scale and proportions are tweaked, references are extended and sublimated, and meanings are twisted and obscured. The artist further states: “These works are about mistranslating the history of ancient objects. As an American, I can’t truly understand the cultural context of the objects I love so much from books and museums. I see their human qualities rather than their place in world history. These objects have a visual echo in the contemporary world. For example, the open mouths of sex dolls resemble Greek dramatic masks. However the meanings have changed or become oblique signifiers.” Peters’ bronze heads offer a personal and intuitive reconstitution of human visages whose appearance remains mostly constant, but whose interpretations are fluid and ever shifting.

Sarah Peters (b. 1973) was educated at Virginia Commonwealth University (MFA), The University of Pennsylvania (BFA), and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Certificate) and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Solo and two-person exhibitions include Bodyrite (with Mira Dancy) at Asya Geisberg, NY; Edward Winkleman Gallery, NY; and John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY, among others. The artist is a recipient of awards and residencies from John Michael Kohler, WI; New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), NY; The Fine Arts Work Center, Providence, RI; and The Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program, NY. Her work has been reviewed and featured in The New York Times; L Magazine, and Artforum.com, among others.