Peter Forakis

Peter Forakis is exhibiting for the first time in Cloverdale this year with “Spheres”, the graceful blending of metals and pleasing shapes on the Boulevard at the entrance to the plaza. Geometry has always fascinated Forakis and inspired his work. “Geometry … is a natural law that exists not only in my thinking and my blood, bones, and marrow, but in the universe and all its matter”.

In the 60’s, Forakis formed the “Park Place Group” an artist co-op encompassing sculpture, painting and music, in New York. The group members found focus in their shared interest in geometry and complex space. It was an art experiment, and as the group’s principal “geometer”, Forakis was not satisfied with thinking of sculpture as three-dimensional. Instead, his work sought to find a door into the fourth dimension, an absolute realm of pure visual sensation and meaning, venerated as the holy grail by early abstractionists.  

Forakis is an unconstrained artist who, driven by his boundless curiosity, has always been willing to cast aside the rewards of the singe signature style favored by the art market. The best known and most influential of Forakis’s work are derived from a unique personal understanding of complex geometrical space. This is illustrated in large commissions such as his monumental Gateway in Atlanta, which towers 100’ tall and 200’ wide, and Tower of Lakota, Williams College in Massachusetts. 

After 50 years of experimentation, his fascination with geometry is as vital as ever. “I revisit, revise, and rework concepts and techniques that have influenced the last 50 years of my work. I continue to explore materials and the possibilities of form that they suggest and permit. Each material dictates the next phase of curiosity that is the driving force behind my creativity”. 
.

Photo by Tedd Peterson