Portrait of the Artist in studio (Cornwall, CT) w/ “Potomac Moon” & “Potomac Sun” Commissions (left) & “Teton Oculus Tondo” Commission (right)

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

American interdisciplinary artist Peter D. Gerakaris creates vibrant paintings, public installations, and origami sculptures that engage nature-culture themes through a global lens. Raised a free-range child in New Hampshire, Gerakaris earned a BFA from Cornell University and an MFA from Hunter College where he received the Tony Smith Prize.

The artist’s works are showcased in various permanent institutional collections including the National Museum of Wildlife Art (Jackson, WY), NYC Department of Education, U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies Program in Gabon (Africa), Capital One, Citibank, Roanoke College (Salem, VA), and the Berkshire Botanical Garden (Stockbridge, MA), in addition to a spectrum of private collections around the globe such as Beth Rudin DeWoody and the William Lim Living Collection (Hong Kong, China).

Gerakaris has also created many large-scale public commissions awarded by Cornell Tech, The Surrey Hotel, Bergdorf Goodman, and the Berkshire Botanical Garden, in addition to a permanent public art commission through the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art Program spanning 116ft at PS101K (Brooklyn, NY).

Having received distinctions such as The Nature Conservancy’s Andy Warhol Preserve Residency Grant and the EcoArt Project Award, his artwork has been exhibited internationally at the Museum of Arts and Design, the Hudson River Museum, the Bronx Museum, the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Whatcom Museum, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, the James Museum, the Bruce Museum, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, FX Collaborative, Chinese Contemporary (Beijing), Carol Corey Fine Art (Kent, CT), the National Academy of Fine Arts, and the Mykonos Biennale, along with various art fairs such as Scope, Doors (Seoul) and Art on Paper New York. Gerakaris’ work has been the subject of various solo exhibitions at venues such as Cornell Tech, Wave Hill, Google NYC, and the Berkshire Botanical Garden, while appearing in publications like Architectural Digest, the Financial Times, the New York Times, and W Magazine.

The artist currently enjoys creating a wide range of site-specific and large-scale commissions for various collections, while working on various solo projects. Additionally, Gerakaris has volunteered for two terms on Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, & Planning Alumni Advisory Council and is also an avid guitarist.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

I feel that nothing can befall me...no calamity...which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground,—my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peter D. Gerakaris’ artwork tickles the retina and mind by filtering a broad array of Nature-Culture themes through a kaleidoscopic, global lens. Providing a sense of uplift in a space where nature and culture converge, the artist passionately seeks to reconnect humanity with our natural environment. The artist’s distinctive visual language and interdisciplinary approach spans painting, murals, mosaics, large-scale public installations, works on paper, printmaking, and origami sculptures.

Whether amalgamating the time-honored techniques of precious metal-leaf gilding with contemporary painting through his Neo-Byzantine “Icon Series”, or rendering the illusion of collage by hand through his Post-Pop Botanical, Aquatic, or Topographical series, Gerakaris’ work ultimately blurs analog-digital boundaries while harmonizing its hyper-graphic quality with a hand-painted and cerebral touch. Layering intricate details within a larger graphic totality, each artwork offers a portal through which viewers are invited to meditate on the interconnectedness of all living things  — from the microcosm to the macrocosm.

Often summoning a mythological presence, large-scale shaped canvases are meticulously rendered in a signature style of vibrant coloration and form with recurring motifs that include endangered and exotic flora/fauna such as pollinators, owls and various avian creatures, orchids, aquatic life, and more — all culled from extensive research, travel, and firsthand exploration.

The artist’s dynamic use of color is also essential to his work: it arouses emotion and tension by pushing the limits of our color perception beyond the boundaries of pictorial composition. By staging organic forms within a vibratory color palette, the imagery also takes on a sort of stereoscopic effect — a musicality that has been likened to “visual jazz.” Often evoking our terrestrial, aquatic, and cosmic frontiers, the artist constructs imagery like a phantasmagorical collage to represent society’s complex — and often fragmented  — relationship with the environment. The luminous layering of motifs that form each holistic artwork functions like a glue that seeks to mend this Nature-Culture divide.

Peter D. Gerakaris in studio w/ “Penumbra Tondo”

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SOCIAL MEDIA

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