Artist Talk - Robin Peck: Crania

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Robin Peck, "Crania," 2018

Roger Smith, courtesy of Canada NYC.

Reception Friday, June 15, 7:00 PM

Artist Talk: Saturday, June 16, 2:00 PM

Curated by David MacWilliam

Crania represents twelve of more than one hundred mixed-media sculptures by Robin Peck. Each artwork in the series are titled with name, year, size, and the materials that constitute their forms:

Sculpture (Crania 112), Materials from the center: Hydrocal, Styrofoam, lead, pottery plaster (signed: Robin Peck, 2009), gold paint, Hydrocal, ceramic, Hydrocal and burlap, gravel, Hydrocal, shellac, carnauba wax. Size: 12 × 16 × 15 in. Weight 33 lb. 2009-2018

Referencing both figurative and minimalist sculptural practices, Peck uses materials that are often associated with the detritus of the factory floor, the stuff of the studio, the garage, or the shed out back. The materials speak to the forms he is shaping (some resemble a mound, a dome, perhaps a head). Through an organic, open-ended system of inclusion, Peck moulds, pats and rasps these materials into forms that are determined both by the limits of the hand and the matter that makes up their mass. The mark of the hand is clearly evident in the shaping, attention to surface and final patina. These are sculptures that invite contemplation and reinforce the body as a primal way of knowing.

Seen together these sculptures rely on comparison to foreground acts of collection, selection and arrangement, with Peck’s pre-industrial methods harkening back to an earlier material past and intimates a foreboding in anticipation of the uncertainty of a dystopian post-industrial future.

A new book of Robin Peck’s essays: Journey to the Circumference of the Earth, designed by Stephan Garneau is published as part of the Or Gallery exhibition and co-published by Publication Studio Vancouver and Canada NYC. Earlier versions of several of these essays have previously appeared in C Magazine, Parachute, Boo Magazine, Canadian Art. Journey to the Circumference of the Earth is available for purchase at READ Books, Emily Carr University of Art and Design; and Publication Studio Vancouver.

Robin Peck is a Canadian artist, writer and educator living is Fredericton, NB. Since receiving his MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in 1976, he has exhibited across Canada and internationally. His artwork and writing have appeared in C Magazine, Parachute, Vanguard, Boo Magazine, Canadian Art, and the Vancouver Anthology. Since 2005, he has taught Visual Arts at St.Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick.