Artist: Peter Pincus
Peter Pincus, ROCHESTER, NY
Bio
Peter Pincus is well known for work that combines exquisite form and intense color through porcelain vessels and tile compositions. Driven by inquiry, his practice blends color theory, the history of decorative arts, and cutting-edge technical experimentation in ceramics. As an artist and designer, Pincus continues to garner national attention for his research-based practice that includes the Wedgwood collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art (AL) as well as an examination of several conceptual works by Sol LeWitt at MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA).
Pincus received both his BFA (2005) and MFA (2011) from Alfred University, Alfred, NY. He has been a resident artist at the Mendocino Art Center in Mendocino, CA and Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT, taught at Haystack School Mountain School of Craft and worked at the Genesee Center for Arts and Education in Rochester, NY as the Studio Manager and Resident Artist Coordinator. In Fall 2014, Peter joined the faculty as Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at the School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology. He was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2018, and is currently in the tenure application process.
Statement from the Artist
As an early career ceramic artist, I am part of a lively and rapidly changing conversation in which the worlds of art, craft, and design are increasingly defined not only by their distinctions, but also by their similarities and relationships to one another. There is tremendous meaning in the transcendence of the pot to engage in all of these ideologies; object of substantial craftsmanship, object of use, object of design intellect, and object of conceptual metaphor.
I produce three-dimensional paintings out of pots. The big challenge is to study and make objects that have a distinct location in the home, using our familiarity toward them to instigate new discussions about the role of the vessel in our place and time. I focus on containers that are status symbols saved for special occasions, generally deemed distinct because of the value of what they hold rather than for what they are. But to me, in between such occasions, they become canvases that visually illustrate the defining spirit of the times. They are useful as well as opulent. But they can be so much more.