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PETER FORAKIS

An American artist known as an abstract geometric sculptor. The sculpture of Peter Forakis is grounded in a remarkable intuitive understanding of geometry. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, his work was considered one of the most original and on the cutting edge, which led to the creation of the Atlanta Gateway, the tallest metal sculpture from the 1960’s. He is known for creating complex and dynamic metal forms and has been internationally recognized as preeminent abstract artist. Forakis was a member of the Six and Dilexi galleries in San Francisco and the Park Place Group, in New York. He formally studied at the San Francisco Art Institute. His works are in the permanent collection of the Walker Art Center, the Oakland Museum, the San Francisco MOMA and the Denver Art Museum, among others and in private collections.

His legacy extends from the early days with the Beat Area artists and poets. Forakis graduated from the SF Art Institute in 1957 and showed at the legendary Six Gallery in the 1950s in San Francisco. He then joined Park Place Group in New York (1963-67) with Mark di Suvero, and subsequently exhibited in major sculpture exhibitions in museums on both coasts. From the Oakland Museum to the Smithsonian, Forakis’ works are in major public and private collections across the US, Europe and Asia and he has won numerous grants to continue his lifetime work. He is considered one of the leading American post-war sculptors, exhibiting in several landmark exhibitions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts (LACMA) 1967 American Sculpture of the Sixties.

BORN: September 22, 1927, Hanna, Wyoming

BACKGROUND: Merchant Marines, 1945-50. Military Service in Korea, Japan 1951-53

EDUCATION:B.F.A. California School of Fine Arts (San Francisco Art Institute) 1957

ONE MAN EXHIBITIONS:

1960	Brata Gallery, New York

1961	David Anderson Gallery, New York

1963	Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York

1964	Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York

1966	Park Place Gallery, New York

1967	Windham College, Putney, Vermont

1968	Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

1970	Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

1971	University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont

1977	Sunne Savage Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts

1978	Sculpture Now, Inc., New York

1981	University of Kentucky Art Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky

1981   University of Cincinnati Art Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio

1982	Sunne Savage Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts

1982	Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, New York

1983	Gallery 30, San Mateo, California

1984	Gallery 30, San Mateo, California

1987	Brown Bag Farms, Petaluma, California

1988	871 Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco, California

2008   Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, California

'''GRANTS: ''' 1973 	National Endowment for the Arts

1981	National Endowment for the Arts

2002	Pollock-Krasner

COMMISSIONS:

1966	Atlanta Gateway, Atlanta, Georgia

1967	Tower of Lakota (Williams College, Massachusetts)

1969	Hyper Qube, Denver, Colorado

1970	Tyconderoga, Nyack, New York

1971	Tower of Cheyenne, (University of Houston, Texas)

1977	Sokar, Marlboro, Vermont

1980	Kingsboro College, New York

1982	Claremont Resort Hotel, Oakland, California

1982   Jack London,Oakland, California

1986	Inner Land Corporation, Walnut Creek, California

1993	Terraceson, France ‘Jardins de l’Imaginarie’

1994	Vivin Bloom Ranch, Petaluma, California

1994	Ulrike Kantor, Los Angeles, California

'''GROUP EXHIBITIONS:  1953''' 1953	Ujeno Museum, Tokyo, Japan

1956	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

1957	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

1957   Six Gallery, San Francisco, California

1957   Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco, California

1957   Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California

1958	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

1958	Six Gallery, San Francisco, California

1959	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

1959	Tanager Gallery, New York

1960

1960	John Daniels Gallery (Two Person Show), New York Brata Gallery

1961	New Forms – New Media, Part 1 and 2, Martha Jackson Gallery, 1961	New York 1962	Martha Jackson Gallery, (Two person show), New York

1962   Riverside Museum, New York

1963	Park Place Gallery, New York

1964	American Drawings, Guggenheim Museum, New York

1964   The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut

1964   Sculpture Show, Riverside Museum, New York

1964   Welfare Island Art Festival, New York

1964   Park Place Gallery, New York

1965	1, 2, 3 Infinitive, Graham Gallery, New York

1965	Collector’s Choice, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,San Francisco, California

1965	New Directions, World House Gallery, New York

1965	Colored Sculpture, American Federation of Arts (Traveling Exhibition)

1965  	4D, John Daniels Gallery, New York

1965	Park Place Gallery, New York

1966   Park Place Gallery, New York

1966	Primary Structures, Jewish Museum, New York

1966	Heath’s Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia

1966	N.Y.U. Drawing Exhibition, New York, New York

1967	Park Place Group Exhibition, Denver Colorado

1967	Cool Art, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield,Connecticut

1967	Art For the City, I.C.A., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1967	Bienniel, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois

1967	Sculpture of the 60’s, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,

1967   Philadelphia Museum of Art

1968	Options, Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1968	United States Embassy, Mexico City, under the auspices of the Museum of Modern Art, New York

1968   Park Place Group Exhibition, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

1968	Sculpture in the Park, Denver, Colorado

1969	Drawing Show, Graham Gallery, New York

1969   String Show, Janis Gallery, New York

1969	Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

1970

1970	Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana

1970   Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

1971	Paula Cooper Gallery

1972	Sculpture in the Park, New Jersey Council of the Arts, Paramus, New Jersey

1972  	Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

1972	Art of the 70’s, Greenwich, New York

1973	Sculpture 1973, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York

1973	Vermont ’73, Fleming Museum, Burlington, Vermont

1974	Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York

1974   Sculpture in the Park, Bergon Community College, Paramus, New Jersey

1974	Hirshhorn Collection, Washington Museum of Modern Art, Washington, D.C. 1975	Sculpture Now, Inc., New York

1977	Sculpture Yesterday/Today, Sculpture Now, Inc., New York

1978	Sunne Savage Gallery, Boston Massachusetts

1979	Sculpture Now, Inc., New York

1979	Prospect Mountain Sculpture Show, Lake George, New York

1980

1980	Sculptors’ Studies, Glen Falls, New York

1981	Construct, Chicago, Illinois

1981	Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York

1981	University of Kentucky Museum, Lexington, Kentucky

1982	Wards Island, Environmental Artists

1981-82	Sculpture Now: Contemporary American Sculptors, Park West Gallery, Detroit, Michigan

1982   Sculpture Inv., Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky

1982	Project Sculpture, Oakland, California

1982	Painter’s Choice, Race Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1982	Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, California

1983	Group Show, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, California

1983	Group Show, Gallery 30, San Mateo, California

1983   Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, New York

1985	Sun Gallery, Hayward, California

1986	Sonoma Artists, City Hall, Santa Rosa, California

1987	Group Show, Brown Bag Farms, Petaluma, California

1987   Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, New York

1988	Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, New York

1989	Sonoma Art Gallery, Cotati, California

1989	Heather Farm Park, Walnut Creek, California 1989	“Art in the City”, Berkeley, California

1990

1990   Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, California

1990	Plaza One Market Street, San Francisco, California

1991	Brown Bag Farms, Petaluma, California

1991	Socrates Sculpture Park, New York

1991	Rental Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco, California

1991	Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California

1992	Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, California

1992	Lookout Sculpture Park, Pennsylvania

1992	Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California

1993	E Space Gallery, San Francisco, California

1993	San Francisco Design Center, San Francisco, California

1993	Brown Bag Farms, Petaluma, California

1993	Socrates Sculpture Park, New York

1993	Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California

1994   SF MOMA Rental Gallery, San Francisco, California

1994	Trident Museum, Santa Clara, California

1994	Lookout Sculpture Park, Pennsylvania

1994	Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California

1995	SF MOMA Rental Gallery, San Francisco, California

1995	Lookout Sculpture Park, Pennsylvania

1994	Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California

1996	Stoa Gallery, Petaluma, California

1996   San Francisco Yacht Club, Tiburon, California

1996	Belvedere City Hall, Belvedere, California

1996	Look out Sculpture Park West, Petaluma, California 1996	Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies, Tiburon, California

1996	Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California

1997   Stoa Gallery, Petaluma, California

2000

2006	Re Show, SOMARTS, San Francisco, California

2006	Steel Gallery, San Francisco, California

2006   Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, California

2007   Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, California

2008   Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, California

''' TEACHING: ''' 1965	Carnegie Technical School of Architecture and Art

1966	Pennsylvania State University

1968-77	Windham College, Putney, Vermont

Chairman, Art Department 1972-74

1980	University of California, Berkeley, California

1980-82	University of Kentucky

'''Art Schools: ''' 1961-65	Brooklyn Museum Art School

1967	Cooper Union

1978	Schools of Visual Arts, New York City '''HAPPENINGS: ''' 1961	Woodstock, New York

1962	Bridgehampton, New York

1962 	“Ergo Suits,” Carnival and Art Fair, Woodstock, New York

1963	Welfare Island, New York

'''PUBLICATIONS: ''' Grope Magazine, 1/1 (January 1964); 2/2 (1966)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Art News, May 1960; April 1961; May 1961; November 1961; September 1962; Summer 1966; November 1966; January 1964; January 1969 (reproduction); December 1970

David Bourdon, “E-MC 2”,

Art News, January 1966

Arts Magazine, September 1963; March 1967 (reproduction); November 1967; November 1962; March 1964; December 1966

Edwin Ruda, “Park Place: 1963-1967”, Arts Magazine, November 1967

Art in America, December 1964; January 1970; May 1970; November 1970; September 1970 (reproductions)

Carter Ratcliff, Art in America, March 1978

Artforum, September 1970; April 1970; October 1970 (reproductions); January 1978

Lawrence Alloway, “Peter Forakis,” Artforum, January 1968 Arts Magazine, May 1978

COLLECTIONS:	(partial list)

Hirshorn Collection, Smithsonian, Washington D.C.

Mr. and Mrs. Albert List, New York

Larry Aldrich, Ridgefield, Connecticut

Sam Wagstaff, New York

J. Patrick Lannan, New York and Pal Beach

John Powers, New Jersey

Harris Steinberg, New York

Martha Jackson, New York

Jill Kornblee, New York

Dan Graham, New York

Virginia Dwan, New York

Mr. and Mrs. Allen G. Guiberson, Dallas, Texas

Charles Ginnever, Putney, Vermont

Lionell Bauman, New York

T. T. Husdon, Rhode Island

Dartmouth College, New Hampshire

Hartwood Acres Art Center, Allegheny, Pennsylvania

Stanley Silverstein, New York

Frank Porter, Detroit, Michigan

R. Karden, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A. Meys Pearlman, New York

University of Kentucky Art Museum

Oakland Museum, Oakland, California

Harold Schnitzer, Portland, Oregon

Roni Goldfield, California

Lowell McKegney, Petaluma, California

Susie Schlesinger, Petaluma, California

Berkeley Museum, California

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California

Denver Museum, Denver, Colorado

Fort Wayne Museum, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Interland Executive Park, Walnut Creek, California

Stanford Museum, Stanford, Connecticut

Hardwood Acres, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Al and Judy Voigt, Geyserville, California

Ron Casentini, Santa Rosa, California

'''Representation ''' Represented by Togonon Gallery, San Francisco