Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, of Greek descent, multidisciplinary artist Peter Speliopoulos lives and works between New York and Patmos, Greece. He received his BFA from the Parsons School of Design in 1982. For over thirty years, Speliopoulos established an international career as a high fashion designer and costume designer for opera and modern ballet. His design and creative direction have inspired the collections of Christian Dior, Cerruti and Donna Karan among others; his costume designs significantly figured in the work of director/choreographers Karole Armitage and Luca Veggetti.
Speliopoulos’ passion for craftsmanship, organic textures, and forms has informed his work throughout his creative career. The artist’s collection of unique ceramic pieces results from his long-standing fascination for and experimentation with the medium. His first exhibition at Ateliers Courbet, in September of 2019 featured an ensemble of highly textured vessels, reflecting the artist’s interest in the malleability and tactile expressions of clay. As he investigates time-honored techniques, the artist offers a contemporary interpretation of the traditional wheel-thrown forms of Antiquity ceramics with a personal twist.
The artist's second show with the gallery, CHTHONIC, on view from June 10 to August 19, 2021 was composed of works birthed in a time of deep introspection and solitude. Peter Speliopoulos’ body of work for this exhibition continues to investigate and embody the artist's Greek cultural heritage. A freed artistic expression, the symbolic and expressive pieces are an interpretive approach to the Primordial Gods of the Greek underworld. Born from chaos, and mythologized as bestowing darkness - dwelling in the abyss, the anti-heaven, and night - Speliopoulos materializes the essence of the deities by thinking about “the powers they possessed to create the cosmos and the world of humanity, the dark forces and the light, the struggles of life.”
In his own words, Speliopoulos prompts us to regard his work as allegories of the human condition;“...each piece tells a story of how external forces shape us, how we find beauty in our individuality and imperfections. I strive to create tactile surfaces that beg to be touched, alongside a visual power that makes the work feel alive and provokes emotion.”–Peter Speliopoulos
Speliopoulos has served on the Board of theInternational Folk Art Market, Santa Fe, since 2012, and as a member of the Board of Armitage Gone! Dance! since 2005. He is a co-founder of Fashion Centered, since 2013, an annual event benefiting Manhattan’s LGBT Center, continuing his work as a philanthropist and activist. Each vessel is unique and hand-crafted by the artist in his New York studio.
