Peter Shelton

Art Brokerage: Peter Shelton American Artist: b. 1951. Peter Shelton, was born in Troy, Ohio, on January 18, 1951. Sculptor Peter Shelton explores the intrinsic qualities of materials, thoughtfully translating objects from one material into another. In reddress (1998-2011), Shelton recreates a strapless, waist-cinching dress as an acrylic and fiberglass sculpture that references furniture, industrial fencing, the figure, and containers all at once. For cloudsandclunkers, a popular 2004 commission at the Seattle airport, Shelton made organically shaped objects in cast iron and polymer; he hung the white objects from the ceiling (clouds) and piled dark objects on the floor (clunkers). Shelton spent his early school years in Tempe, Arizona. He was a pre-medical student at Pomona College, Pomona, CA studying sociology, anthropology and theatre, before he received his B.A. in Fine Art in 1973. Shelton went on to earn a trade certificate in welding from the Hobart School of Welding Technology in Shelton's hometown of Troy, Ohio, in 1974, and his M.F.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1979. I like to think of my work as a threshold between in and out, object and space, heavy and light. How far away from a corner in a room is it no longer a corner? If you are in a pocket, at what point do you pass when you are no longer in the pocket? Language tries to cope with these questions, and often, poorly. ... When I was a young boy, I would ask friends one of my favorite riddles, "What is the difference of an orange?" When my question was met only with puzzled, distorted faces, even irritated silence, I would happily answer "the peel!" What interests me most in my work is the "peelness" of it... Shelton has had extensive international museum and gallery exhibits.