Renowned photographer, author, and museum curator Brian H. Peterson will exhibit his life story in photographs, words and music at theArtWorks fine art gallery beginning September 28, 2019
theArtWorks™, a first-of-its-kind international art community with working studios, event space, a fine art gallery and more, in Wilmington, North Carolina, will host the exhibit Opening the Curtain: Fifty Years of Image, Word and Song drawn from the works of Brian H. Peterson, from September 28 to November 10, 2019.
Peterson has been a passionate explorer of the creative life for over fifty years. His fine art photographs have been featured in more than 60 solo and group exhibits at galleries and museums from Philadelphia to Houston to Washington DC, and his work is in over a dozen prestigious museum collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Denver Art Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Woodmere Art Museum, and the Library of Congress.
Also a prolific and critically acclaimed author, curator, and arts administrator, Peterson was the Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Chief Curator at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Bucks County, Pennsylvania (1990-2013), where he authored several pioneering scholarly monographs and was the editor and principal author of the landmark publication Pennsylvania Impressionism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002). He has lectured widely on Pennsylvania Impressionism and its connections with the larger story of American art, and his critical writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, American Arts Quarterly, and The Photo Review.
He is also the author of three collections of essays and personal stories, The Smile At the Heart of Things (2009), The Blossoming of the World (2011), and I Give My Eyes… (2018). His books have been reviewed in USA Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Trenton Times, The Allentown Morning Call, and numerous other publications and blogs.
His haunting photographs see the world through a poet’s eye and a curator’s lens, exploring light and shadow, surface and atmosphere, with a uniquely personal vision rooted in both his spiritual life and a lifelong fascination with mortality and transfiguration. Featuring more than 150 images from 17 bodies of work, as well as Peterson’s videography, books, and music, the show is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore the work of a serious and thoughtful artist who not only has mastered traditional lens-based image-making but has ventured into such diverse territory as digitized self-portraits, abstraction, and plastic toy cameras. The work, along with copies of his books including signed copies of his latest publications, will be available for purchase during the exhibition—truly must-have collectibles from a world-class artist whom the former director of the Lancaster Museum of Art, Ellen Rosenholtz, described as follows: “Peterson’s photographs transcend the realm of objects to speak about matters of the soul.”
About theArtWorks™
theArtWorks™ is a developing global art destination with an artist village (working studios), event space, fine art gallery, and more housed in what was once the Block shirt factory in Wilmington, North Carolina. Its 30,000 plus sq. ft. is devoted entirely to creating, displaying, and celebrating art. The studios provide private workspace to painters, photographers, film makers, sculptors, writers, and glass worker etc. The “Art Lounge” (the Blue Monkey) hosts artistic expression and collaboration through music, poetry jams, comedic presentations, and space for private parties. Gallery Verrazzano, one of the largest display spaces in the Wilmington region, provides an opportunity for artists, collectors, and the general public to celebrate and explore some of the finest art that both Wilmington and the world have to offer, showcasing local artists and international visiting shows as well as offering an unusual and creative event venue.