Allen Peterson
Allen Peterson’s work spans the disciplines of sculpture, performance, printmaking, and public art, united by themes of the systems and interconnections at play all around us.
Peterson has enjoyed teaching at several institutions, including SCAD-Atlanta, Atlanta College of Art, University of Montevallo, in Montevallo, AL, and University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has been a visiting artist at Emporia State University in Emporia, KS; Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, MI; and the University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR, where he led a weeklong workshop on furnace construction and mold making for cast iron sculpture.
From 1998 through 2001 Peterson served as a Resident Artist at Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, in his hometown of Birmingham, AL. He was also Foundry Coordinator during the last year of his residency at Sloss. While his stay at that nonprofit teaching foundry ignited his love of molten metal, a two-month public art residency at municipalWORKSHOP, in York, AL, brought his work into the public sphere in 2005. The city of York owns two pieces by Peterson as a result, displayed in the town’s public Cherokee Park. His work is also part of the collections of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Savannah College of Art and Design, and various individual collectors.
Peterson has exhibited extensively in Southeastern galleries, universities and museums. He has also had solo and group exhibitions in New York, California, Minnesota, New Mexico, New Jersey and Illinois. Peterson enjoys working collaboratively, especially on performance art pieces. He has collaborated with or led a wide variety of artists in various performance works, including sculptors, dancers, choreographers, theatre directors, set designers, video artists, composers, musicians, pyrotechnics experts, his students, and his mentors.
Peterson has received awards for excellence in art from the University of Minnesota, where he earned his Master’s of Fine Arts, and from Birmingham-Southern College, where he earned his B.F.A. in 1994. He has been awarded Juror’s Awards in various juried shows at venues such as the Magic City Art Connection in Birmingham, AL, in 2001, and the Alternative Arts Alliance of Denver, CO in 1994.
EDUCATION |
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| 2004 | Masters of Fine Art (sculpture) University of Minnesota |
| 1994 | Bachelor of Fine Art (painting) Birmingham-Southern College (magna cum laude) |
SOLO EXHIBITIONS |
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| 2007 | Cities And The Sky, Pei Ling Chan Gallery, Savannah, GA |
| 2006 | Recent Works, romo Gallery, Atlanta, GA |
| 2004 | Navigating Systems, Durbin Gallery, Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, AL |
| 2001 | Remnants of an Iron Culture, bare hands gallery, Birmingham, AL |
| 2000 | Casting Lots, bare hands gallery, Birmingham, AL |
| 1999 | Wands and Staves: a toolbox for the soul’s maintenance, Heritage Hall Museum, Talladega, AL |
| 1999 | News From the Iron Planet, Center For Cultural Arts, Gadsden, AL |
| 1998 | Crow’s Nest, installation, bare hands gallery, Birmingham, AL |
| 1997 | WHAT DOES YOUR FIRE BURN, Joe, Birmingham, AL |
| 1996 | Trigrams, The Metropolitan Arts Council Gallery, Birmingham, AL |
| 1996 | Myth Seeds, The Birmingham Art Association |
| 1995 | The Serpent’s Egg, The Highland Booksmith, Birmingham, AL |
| 1994 | The Portrait Game, Chez Artiste, Denver, CO |
GROUP EXHIBITIONS |
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| 2007 | Looks Good On Paper, juried by Julia A. Fenton, Spruill Center for the Arts, Atlanta, GA |
| 2006 | Major Works, sculpture and printmaking faculty show, SCAD-Atlanta, Atlanta, GA |
| CupolAesthetics, invitational, Elton Gallery, Gorge Museum, Ironbridge, England, UK | |
| 2005 | Regarding One Hundred: Faculty Exhibition, Atlanta College of Art Gallery, Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, GA |
| The Iron Tribe 2005, international invitational, New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM, Curator: David Lobdell, Professor of Art, NMHU | |
| Metalliform: All things metal, invitational, Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, CA | |
| 2004 | 47th Chautauqua National Exhibition of American Art, national juried exhibition, Chautauqua Center for the Visual Arts, Chautauqua, NY, Juror: Donald Kuspit |
| Printmaking and Drawing Show, juried show, Minnetonka Center for Art, Minnetonka, MN | |
| 2003 | Sixteen Spaces of Hope, a day of presentations documenting works completed by students of artist Alfredo Jaar as part of Jaar’s Project One, University of Minnesota |
| Paper and Metal, invitational, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN, curated by Gallery Director Mary Jo Pauley | |
| The Iron Tribe 2003, international invitational, New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM, Curator: David Lobdell, Professor of Art, NMHU | |
| Big Ten Exhibition, eleven person show, Big Ten Conference Headquarters, Chicago, IL | |
| 2002 | University of Minnesota Sculpture Show, Minnetonka Center for the Arts, Minnetonka, MN |
| Fire to Form: A Cast Iron Exhibition, juried show, Fourth International Conference on Contemporary Cast iron Art, Johnson Atelier, Trenton, NJ | |