Cranbrook Art Museum - Gord Peteran


*Recently Concluded* Gord Peteran: Furniture Meets Its Maker February 3, 2007-April 1, 2007 North Gallery One of the most innovative artists working in North America today happens to be a woodworker. Toronto’s Gord Peteran has launched a boundary-crossing career, opening up the category of furniture to an unprecedented range of psychological and conceptual content. Sometimes his means are disarmingly simple: his work “A Table Made of Wood” is cobbled together, seemingly at random, from scraps lying on his workshop floor. At other times, he employs craftsmanship of the highest order, as in “100”, a precisely machined occasional table that disassembles into a carrying case like that used for a rifle. Other works suggest specimen cabinets, seesaws and game tables, all twisted into new relevance through subtle manipulation. In all cases, Peteran’s work addresses the specific conditions of furniture even as it subverts those conditions. Gord Peteran: Furniture Meets its Maker is organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Chipstone Foundation with generous support from The Windgate Charitable Foundation. Join us for an Artist Talk and Book Signing with Gord Peteran, Sunday, February 11, 4:00 pm. deSalle Auditorium Left: A Table Made of Wood, 1999 Various woods 31 x 37 x 14 in. (78.7 x 94 x 35.6 cm) Courtesy of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Purchase, by exchange. Photo Elaine Brodie.
SELECTED EXHIBITION IMAGES

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Gord Peteran usually starts with a found object: a rickety ladder-back chair, scrap wood from a dumpster, a pencil, or a heap of twigs. Peteran will take one of these things and operate on it in some way, creating an artwork while leaving the thing itself more or less intact. In this way, Peteran has taken the category of furniture as a found object in its own right, a thing to be operated upon conceptually. At Peteran’s hands furniture dies a fascinating death, without ever quite going away. Peteran's work does not easily fit into the conventional categories of contemporary art, design, decorative art, or craft. He calls his pieces "furnitural," a made-up term that suggests his unique relationship with sculpture. “The area between the intimate objects of the home and the psyche,” he has said, "is exactly where any great sculptor would want their work performing. This is what sculpture claims it wants, but has never had the wherewithal to do. I don’t see my work as sculptural furniture; I see it as the only place to point my arrow." This retrospective exhibition of Peteran’s twenty-five year career tracks the artist's progressing interest in the confusing aspects of everyday life, which he captures and examines through art: time's passage, the limitations of language, and the fundamentals of human interaction.
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Gord Peteran in Conversation with Curator Brian Young Sunday, February 11, 4 pm Join us for a conversation with one of North America’s most innovative artists who is actively involved in reshaping the traditional boundaries between art and craft. Gord Peteran has been creating commissioned works of art and furniture since 1979. His work is held in many public and private collections. A faculty member at the Ontario College of Art & Design, he also has taught at Sheridan College School of Craft & Design, Ontario; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; Haystack Mountain School, Maine; and Anderson Ranch Arts Centre, Colorado.
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Gord Peteran: Furniture Meets its Maker is organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Chipstone Foundation with generous support from The Windgate Charitable Foundation. Gord Peteran: Furniture Meets its Maker is presented at Cranbrook through the support of the Museum Committee of Cranbrook Art Museum; members and fundraising activities of ArtMembers@Cranbrook; contributors to the Annual Fund of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum; and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. Cranbrook Art Museum’s 2006-2007 Exhibition Season is sponsored by LaSalle Bank. Cranbrook Art Museum is a non-profit contemporary art museum, and an integral part of Cranbrook Academy of Art, a community of artists-in-residence and graduate-level students of art, design and architecture. Cranbrook Academy of Art and Cranbrook Art Museum are a part of Cranbrook Educational Community, which also includes Cranbrook’s Institute of Science, Schools and other affiliated cultural and educational programs. Cranbrook Art Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums. For information call toll free 1-877-GO-CRANBrook (1-877-462-7262). To become a member of ArtMembers@Cranbrook call 248-645-3032. Museum Hours Wednesday through Sunday, 11am – 5pm Fourth Fridays, 11am – 9pm Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Cranbrook Art Museum Members: Free! Adults: $6 Full-Time Students with ID and Teens 13 and over: $4 Senior Citizens (65+): $4 Children 12 and under: Free! No credit cards accepted Personal checks welcomed U.S. currency only For more information, please call 1.877.GO.CRANBrook. (1.877.462.7262)