Peter Tunney Mixed Media

Hoop and clear acrylic backboard stenciled "These are the Good Old Days/ Now" and signed at bottom right "Peter Tunney/2002 A.D. a/o January 15th." 47 1/2" W x 27 1/2" D. Scuffs and scratches. Peter Tunney (born 1961) is an American visual artist, publisher, art dealer, socialite and former Wall Street executive. He currently lives and works between New York City and Miami, Florida. Tunney first made his fortune investing in biotechnology stocks on Wall Street. He then went onto found for the now closed SoHo gallery "The time is Always Now" where for nine years he showed a vast collection of work by the famed wildlife and fashion photographer Peter Beard, some of which was created on site. In 1994 Tunney was featured on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, as profiled by Robin Leach, and mentioned as one of the worlds most eligible bachelors. Later Beard and Tunney had a dramatic falling out. A tumultuous period followed leading to Tunney's living in the nightclub Crobar while doing a performance piece and eventually to rehab. Today Tunney is a visual artist who works in the genre of neo-pop and whose work has been compared to that of Mel Bochner and Christopher Wool. Tunney is also known for his "Tunney Money" a system of art given in place of cash relinquished. one of his more high profile works so far was a billboard he did in the New York City borough of the Bronx alongside the Major Deegan Expressway which spelled out "GRATTITUDE" (in all capital letters with an extra T added on for emphasis) a word which Tunney has articulated frequently in his visual works. Tunney is also known for his surfboards which he turns into artworks often with his sayings such as "City of Dreams" or the aforementioned "GRATTITUDE" embellished onto them rendering the pieces of sports equipment works of art. In 2009 Tunney was commissioned by now Senior advisor to the President of the United States Jared Kushner (for whom Tunney had previously created a stencil overlay taken from his work "Don't Panic" for Kushner's newspaper The New York Observer) to establish an immersive work called "The Experiment" in the lobby of Kushner's fifth avenue sky scraper 666 Fifth Avenue. In the Wynwood section of Miami he opened a gallery dedicated to his work called the "Peter Tunney Experience". Now forthcoming with the kickoff of the new NFL season at Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins...