BIOGRAPHY
Peter Cusack is an artist, editor, and curator. He is the founder of COCOA: The Journal of Cornwall Contemporary Art and has degrees from Syracuse University and Ecole Albert Dufois in France. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of American Illustration, the New York Transit Museum, and the United States Air Force. His work has also appeared in Architectural Digest, An Illustrated Life, and Drawing Inspiration: Visual Artists At Work.
PARTNERSHIPS
• Tempest ‘20, was included in Architectural Digest, November 2022
• Commissioned by Ateliers Courbet (Melanie Courbet) to create 3 large scale figurative paintings
• Rice paper ink drawings available at Pierogi Gallery in Williamsburg Brooklyn
* Featured Artist in Isele Magazine November 2023
• Teaching Drawing the Baroque Figure at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and IBEX Puppetry, NYC
ARTIST STATEMENT concerning a recent body of work (November 2023)
"Why this farce day after day"
My work is not usually about issues. It’s about people. But I’m not able to keep the wars out of my studio, nor the toxic political unrest, nor the various global humanitarian crises, nor the thought that the climate could be in the process of collapsing, nor the digital dependency that most of us suffer under. These 10 paintings are not illustrations of the above issues but rather contemplative visual poems that attempt to express the anxiety, the numbness, and the dislocation felt in response to the notion that we as individuals can do very little to change the circumstances we face. We are left to bare them. To my mind this idea brings us intimately together. These paintings are not bombastic but whispers like one lover does to another. “I’m concerned.” “I know.”
Individually these paintings are about memory and loss, the phenomenology of road repair, and the endurance of artifact. Like literature, I’m telling (suggesting) stories about life and meaning. The painting “Figure Folding Drapery” is about our struggle to come to terms with overwhelming and complicated times. That fabric of our society is twisted, too big, and unaccountable. “Road Maintenance” and “Tar Patches” speak to the trauma that we all experience in our lives and the attempts we make to repair the erosion, scars, and holes that it leaves behind. Potholes, pavement cracks, and tar patterns along the road are compelling, suggesting a more profound meaning through their fractal designs, mathematical underpinnings, and there alignment with universal laws of nature.
Sculptures play a prominent role in this body of work and in my work in general. My interest in classical sculpture in particular stems from much time spent drawing in the Greek and Roman sculpture court at the MET in NYC. These sculptures’ complex beauty echoes the themes that I’m exploring on the road. Like road erosion, the sculptures are artifacts. They tell a story about time, and the enduring nature of classical intelligence, universal natural order, geometry, and beauty. Embedded in ancient sculpture is the very process of creation and erosion that shapes human societies. They remind us of our greatness and our folly.
I use the figure as a vehicle for identifying and expressing complex emotional narratives. Paintings like “Man Spirit Dog” and “Violet Woman on a Dark Field with Green and Yellow” explore intimacy, spirituality, transcendence, and loss. Color plays an important role in this body of work but in particular color supports the emotional tenor in my figurative works. The dark limited palette that I use is stoic and sonorous. A sense of unification and fullness is reached by embedding rich colors inside an organized tonal structure. The effect is a subdued statement with a register similar to a cello’s; haunting and implying the human voice.
The title of this body of work is taken from Samual Beckett’s play Endgame. In the following verse we are to consider life’s existential frame work and the placement of our sore human heart. The fact that it’s sore indicates that it has meaning.
Clov: Why this farce, day after day? Hamm: Routine. One never knows. Last night I saw inside my breast. There was a big sore. Clov: Pah! You saw your heart. Hamm: No, it was living. Clov! Clov: Yes. Hamm: What's happening? Clov: Something is taking its course. Hamm: Clov! Clov: [impatiently] What is it? Hamm: We're not beginning to ... to ... mean something? Clov: Mean something! You and I, mean something! [Brief laugh.] Ah that's a good one! Hamm: I wonder.
And finally, I submit a poem of my own, a peace piece.
A Poem. This is a poem. He says, “My body is build for war.” She says, “That’s not what you body is build for”
CV
Solo Exhibitions
2023 A Letter to Zola, MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, Iowa
2022 A Painter Among Poets, The Cornwall Library, Cornwall, CT
2021 A Leter to Zola, Judy Black Memorial Park, Washington Depot, CT
2020 American Dream, Mary G. Hardin Center for Cultural Arts, Gadsden, AL
New Paintings, Old Ideas, Studio Exhibition, Torrington, CT
2019 American Dream, Five Point Gallery Annex, Torrington, CT
The Pageant of Summer, Oliver Walcott Library, Litchfield, CT
2014 From Life, Cornwall Bridge Gallery, West Cornwall, CT
Group Exhibitions
2024, About Printmaking, Washington Art Association, Curated by Tony Kirk, Watchington, CT
2023, Embodied Era, Mary MacGill, Germantown, NY
2022 Art Mix, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder CO
2021 Rose Algrant Show, West Cornwall, CT
2020 Summer Stock, Craven Contemporary, Kent CT
2019 Rose Algrant Show, West Cornwall, CT
2018 Mana Open, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
2017 Mana Open, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
2016 Mana Open, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
2015 Washington Arts Association, Washington Depot, CT
(Curated by William Bailey)
2011 The Fragile Earth, Society of Illustrators, New York, NY
Members Open, Society of Illustrators, New York, NY
2009 Faculty Exhibition, St John’s University, Queens, NY
Members Open, Society of Illustrators, New York, NY
2008 The Rose Algrant Show, West Cornwall, Connecticut
2007 The Still Life, , Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA
Society of Illustrators 49th Annual Juried Exhibition, New York, NY
Members Open, Society of Illustrators, New York, NY
2006 Society of Illustrators 48th Annual Juried Exhibition, New York, NY
Members Open, Society of Illustrators, New York, NY
Iron Works Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Syracuse University Graduate Show, Lowe Art Gallery, Syracuse, NY
2002 Bronxville Art Center and Gallery, Bronxville, NY
2001 Bruno Billard, (France, Saudi Arabia, Syria]
2000 Paul Toner Gallery, NYC
1999 Student Show, L’ Ecole Albert Dufois, France
Collections
The New York Transit Museum, NY
United States Air Force Collection, Washing DC
Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators, NY
Publications
The Visual Artist at Work, Michael Fleishman
Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers, Danny Gregory
Illustrators 48, Illustrators 49, Illo8, illo9, illo10
Education
Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 2004, MA, Illustration
State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York, 1994 ,BA, English, Art History
Arts Students League, New York, 2001-2004
L’ Ecole Albert Dufois, Les Cerqueux Sous Passavant, France, 1998
Private Study 1997-1999, Andrew Reiss, Painter