Past Resident

Peter Christian Johnson, 2012-2013 Matsutani Fellow
Resident summer 2011, long-term 2012–2013

Peter Christian Johnson is joining us for his sabbatical year from Eastern Oregon University. He is hoping to take risks in his work and experiment with new forms while he is here. Peter’s industrial forms are not recreations of work from our culture but rather abstractions of day-to-day objects. They are meant to blend and reflect on the pursuit of progress and human history. Peter was a summer resident in 2011 and the 2012 Matsutani Fellow.

Peter is from La Grande, Oregon where, he is currently an associate professor of art at Eastern Oregon University. He earned his MFA from Pennsylvania State University and a BS in environmental science at Wheaton College in Illinois. Peter has been a resident artist/visiting lecturer at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary; Australian National University; the LH Project in Joseph, Oregon; and the Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts in North Carolina. His work has been exhibited in Canada, Australia and across the United States.

“I am interested in how the artifacts we leave behind speak to our history and cultural identity. My work is meant to straddle the present, simultaneously looking back to the past and towards the future.  It catalogues the act of making, of constructing, of inventing, and reinventing. My sculptures are not recreations of objects from our culture, but abstractions of the things we find ourselves surrounded by. These aged objects are meant to spur reflection of our pursuit of ‘progress’ in relationship to the vast expanse of human history.”

To see more work of Peter's visit his website at www.peterchristianjohnson.com.

Arc #6, 2012
ceramic, stain, paint, 29" x 16" x 16"

Arc #5, 2012
ceramic, stain, paint, 29" x 16" x 16"

Pink, 2012
ceramic, wood, stain, paint, 26" x 15" x 17"

Red, 2012
ceramic, wood, stain, paint, 26" x 16.5" x 16.5"