Peter Soriano

Peter Soriano (born 23 September 1959 in the Philippines) is a contemporary French-American artist and sculptor whose work has been exhibited in galleries and museums since 1994.

He is represented by Lennon, Weinberg, Inc. in New York City, by Galerie Jean Fournier in Paris, and by Galerie Bernard Jordan in Zurich. His works are included in the collections of the Colby College Museum of Art in Maine,^[1] the Morgan Library & Museum in New York,^[2] the Harvard Art Museums at Harvard University,^[3] the Fonds national d'art contemporain (FNAC) in Paris, the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, and the Wanås Foundation in Sweden, among other institutions.

Career

Soriano's first solo exhibitions, in the 1990s at Lennon, Weinberg in New York and at Galerie Jean Fournier in Paris, established his career as a sculptor^[4] known for his brightly colored, pop-surealist biomorphic works in polyester resin described as "part toy, part tool, part creature."^[5] While some critics saw Soriano's resin sculptures as cartoony and cheerful—"good-humored...industrial biomorphism," to quote the New York Times^[6]—others suggested that the works were more complex and "vexing"^[7] than they first appeared.

In the mid-2000s, while in a six-month residency at the Atelier Calder in Saché, France,^[8] Soriano began moving in a "radical" new direction.^[9] His new work, which now combined sculpture and painting, consisted of conceptual wall installations made of aluminum tubing, steel cable, and spray paint. The critic Raphael Rubinstein, an editor at Art in America, has cited Soriano's wall installations as important and radical examples of "provisionality," a style of art intentionally made to appear "casual, dashed-off, tentative, unfinished or self-cancelling."^[10] In 2011, Soriano's work was included in "Provisional Painting," an exhibition at Modern Art in London that also featured work by Richard Tuttle, Julian Schnabel, and Raoul De Keyser.^[11] More recently, Soriano's work has moved even further away from traditional sculpture. Eliminating the use of steel cables and pipes, his January 2013 solo exhibition at Lennon, Weinberg consisted exclusively of large, spray-painted wall murals suggestive of graffiti.^[12] In the tradition of Sol LeWitt, Soriano's wall murals can be replicated by following a set of written instructions.^[13]

Solo exhibitions

• "Permanent Maintenance," Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME, September 2015;^[14]
• "Panorama," Galerie Jean Fournier, Paris, November 2013;^[15]
• "Bagaduce ->( )<- East 19th," Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME, May 2013;^[16]
• "Peter Soriano: New Work," Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, January 2013;^[17]
• Other Side -> (NUM)BERS <- And What Follows, Château de Kerguéhennec, Brittany, France, September 2011;^[18]
• Other Side -> (NUM)BERS, Galerie Jean Fournier, Paris, September 2011;^[19]
• Points Touching / Spaces Defined, Galerie Bernard Jordan, Zurich, January 2010;^[20]
• Dimensions Variables," Frederico Seve Gallery, New York, September 2010;^[21]
• Other Side..(...IDOL, AJAC, IONA, EMEU...)..," Galerie Jean Fournier, Paris, January 2009;^[22]
• Peter Soriano: New Sculptures & Drawings, Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, May 2007;^[23]
• Peter Soriano: Oeuvres Récentes Réalisées à l'Atelier Calder," Galerie Jean Fournier, Paris, February 2006;^[24]
• "Peter Soriano: New Sculpture and Drawing," Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, January 2003.^[25]

Background

Born in the Philippines to parents of French and Spanish descent, Soriano divides his time between Penobscot, Maine^[16] and New York City, where he lives in a landmarked townhouse with his wife, Vanity Fair contributing editor Nina Munk.^[26] Soriano earned an A.B. in Art History from Harvard College in 1981 before attending the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His paternal grandfather, Andrés Soriano, a prominent businessman and philanthropist, was Minister of Finance in the Philippines before World War II. In interviews, Soriano has credited his uncle Fernando Zóbel de Ayala y Montojo, the celebrated modern Spanish painter, as having prodded him to become an artist.^[27]

References

External links

• Announcement of commissioned work for Colby College Museum of Art.
• Artist's bio and exhibition history, including photographs, at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc.
• Artist's bio and exhibition history, including photographs and catalogs, at Galerie Jean Fournier
• Peter Soriano's personal website
• Catalog for 2013 exhibition at Lennon, Weinberg, with first-person essay by the artist
• Galerie Bernard Jordan
• Brian Dupont, "Where I Am Now: In Conversation with Peter Soriano," Idiom magazine, 11 September 2012
• Stephen Maine, "Peter Soriano: Lennon, Weinberg, Inc./New York," Artillery Magazine, 1 March 2013
• David Carrier, "In Search of the Mutable: Peter Soriano at Lennon Weinberg," Art Critical, 23 February 2013
• Patterson Sims, "Peter Soriano: Interior Drawing," Galerie Jean Fournier & Domaine de Kerguéhennec, 2012
• Marion Daniel, "Peter Soriano: Du Dessin-Signe à la Pensée Visuelle," Roven #5, Spring/Summer 2011. (In French)
• Julian Kreimer, "Peter Soriano at Lennon, Weinberg," Art in America, December 2007
• Emily Talbot, "Peter Soriano," Time Out New York, May 29, 2007