Peter Kirkiles
Sentinel
2023

About the Item

Peter Kirkiles Biography American, b. 1966 Sculptor Peter Kirkiles stresses that the inspiration for his metal sculptures comes from the satisfaction of the process of fabricating a piece in a skilled manner and from his attraction to everyday objects and their relationship to humans. He finds beauty in the utilitarian tools, and objects that we may not notice in our day to day lives. By playing with their size and their proportion to human scale, he forces the viewer to examine more closely the object’s construction and its overall design importance. He has a nostalgia for well designed, well used, history laden objects. “I’m a maker; I’m also an admirer of things well made. Over the years, I’ve chosen to make things that I love. I find the subjects of my sculpture in real life; a shoe, a camera, a clock, a ruler…made to scale, as sculpture.” –Peter Kirkiles Kirkiles holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tufts University, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts and a Masters of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He has exhibited nationally including a 2021 solo exhibition “At Scale” at the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne Vermont. His work is held by The Shelburne Museum, The New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT and by private collectors throughout the US. ***** Peter Kirkiles’ sculptures are visual odes to everyday objects. He is a maker’s maker, a master craftsman, a lover of well-constructed things. He has a special affinity for things well-used, that have stood the test of time and remain steadfast in their intended purpose, that bear the marks of labor and living, that contain echoes of humanity: an antique chest of drawers, a well-worn shoe, a metal whistle, all sorts of folding rules. A highly skilled fabricator with an expertise in metalsmithing, Kirkiles’ art is deeply informed by his years of experience working at foundries where, as a young man, he learned to bring other artists’ visions to life in monumental scale, as well as by decades of traveling the country restoring and conserving works of art as part of an expert team of art conservators and materials scientists. At home in his own studio, Kirkiles does everything by hand, from design concept to bronze casting, from carving, molding, and welding, to patina and pedestal. He revels in the process, and it is this love of making that brings his work to life, each sculpture an homage to the original maker of the object that inspired it, or sometimes to the person who used the object itself. Such is the case with Kirkiles’ 3-foot-tall bronze and steel sculpture titled Calder’s Pliers, which is a tribute to fellow artist Alexander Calder’s favorite tool for creating his world-renowned mobile sculptures. While one may look at some of Kirkiles’s work—such as an absurdly large, wall-mounted whistle made of bronze with a wood burl—and think of pop art, or encounter one of his life-size folding rules that seems to be posed mid-stride and think of abstract figuration, Kirkiles maintains that it is a fidelity to the original object and its specific characteristics that is the raison d’etre of his work. Devoid of their function, the objects that inspire the artist are recreated as pure form, elevated as art, forcing the viewer to consider them anew. Kirkiles’ sculptures often evoke nostalgia for simpler times, or memories of a similarly beloved object. They question our relationships with the things we own, especially utilitarian items, and call us to a greater awareness of the material culture that comprises our personal worlds. What beauty can be found in a single shoe that cannot be worn, a dresser with only a façade of drawers, a train car that cannot transport, or a ruler whose measurements are wholly inaccurate? For Peter Kirkiles, the answer is contained within his art.

Creator:

Peter Kirkiles (1966, American)

Creation Year:

2023

Dimensions:

Height: 102 in (259.08 cm)Width: 14 in (35.56 cm)Depth: 14 in (35.56 cm)

Medium:

Bronze,Stainless Steel

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

2010-