PETER FORAKIS

An American artist known as an abstract geometric sculptor. The sculpture of Peter Forakis is grounded in a remarkable intuitive understanding of geometry. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, his work was considered one of the most original and on the cutting edge, which led to the creation of the Atlanta Gateway, the tallest metal sculpture from the 1960’s. He is known for creating complex and dynamic metal forms and has been internationally recognized as preeminent abstract artist. Forakis was a member of the Six and Dilexi galleries in San Francisco and the Park Place Group, in New York. He formally studied at the San Francisco Art Institute. His works are in the permanent collection of the Walker Art Center, the Oakland Museum, the San Francisco MOMA and the Denver Art Museum, among others and in private collections.

His legacy extends from the early days with the Beat Area artists and poets. Forakis graduated from the SF Art Institute in 1957 and showed at the legendary Six Gallery in the 1950s in San Francisco. He then joined Park Place Group in New York (1963-67) with Mark di Suvero, and subsequently exhibited in major sculpture exhibitions in museums on both coasts. From the Oakland Museum to the Smithsonian, Forakis’ works are in major public and private collections across the US, Europe and Asia and he has won numerous grants to continue his lifetime work. He is considered one of the leading American post-war sculptors, exhibiting in several landmark exhibitions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts (LACMA) 1967 American Sculpture of the Sixties.

BORN: September 22, 1927, Hanna, Wyoming

BACKGROUND: Merchant Marines, 1945-50. Military Service in Korea, Japan 1951-53

EDUCATION:B.F.A. California School of Fine Arts (San Francisco Art Institute) 1957

ONE MAN EXHIBITIONS:
1960 Brata Gallery, New York
1961 David Anderson Gallery, New York
1963 Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York
1964 Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York
1966 Park Place Gallery, New York
1967 Windham College, Putney, Vermont
1968 Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1970 Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1971 University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont
1977 Sunne Savage Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
1978 Sculpture Now, Inc., New York
1981 University of Kentucky Art Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky
1981 University of Cincinnati Art Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
1982 Sunne Savage Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
1982 Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, New York
1983 Gallery 30, San Mateo, California
1984 Gallery 30, San Mateo, California
1987 Brown Bag Farms, Petaluma, California
1988 871 Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco, California
2008 Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, California

GRANTS:
1973 National Endowment for the Arts
1981 National Endowment for the Arts
2002 Pollock-Krasner

COMMISSIONS:
1966 Atlanta Gateway, Atlanta, Georgia
1967 Tower of Lakota (Williams College, Massachusetts)
1969 Hyper Qube, Denver, Colorado
1970 Tyconderoga, Nyack, New York
1971 Tower of Cheyenne, (University of Houston, Texas)
1977 Sokar, Marlboro, Vermont
1980 Kingsboro College, New York
1982 Claremont Resort Hotel, Oakland, California
1982 Jack London,Oakland, California
1986 Inner Land Corporation, Walnut Creek, California
1993 Terraceson, France ‘Jardins de l’Imaginarie’
1994 Vivin Bloom Ranch, Petaluma, California
1994 Ulrike Kantor, Los Angeles, California

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
1953 1953 Ujeno Museum, Tokyo, Japan
1956 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
1957 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
1957 Six Gallery, San Francisco, California
1957 Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco, California
1957 Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California
1958 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
1958 Six Gallery, San Francisco, California
1959 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
1959 Tanager Gallery, New York
1960
1960 John Daniels Gallery (Two Person Show), New York Brata Gallery
1961 New Forms – New Media, Part 1 and 2, Martha Jackson Gallery, 1961 New York 1962 Martha Jackson Gallery, (Two person show), New York
1962 Riverside Museum, New York
1963 Park Place Gallery, New York
1964 American Drawings, Guggenheim Museum, New York
1964 The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut
1964 Sculpture Show, Riverside Museum, New York
1964 Welfare Island Art Festival, New York
1964 Park Place Gallery, New York
1965 1, 2, 3 Infinitive, Graham Gallery, New York
1965 Collector’s Choice, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,San Francisco, California
1965 New Directions, World House Gallery, New York
1965 Colored Sculpture, American Federation of Arts (Traveling Exhibition)
1965 4D, John Daniels Gallery, New York
1965 Park Place Gallery, New York
1966 Park Place Gallery, New York
1966 Primary Structures, Jewish Museum, New York
1966 Heath’s Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
1966 N.Y.U. Drawing Exhibition, New York, New York
1967 Park Place Group Exhibition, Denver Colorado
1967 Cool Art, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield,Connecticut
1967 Art For the City, I.C.A., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1967 Bienniel, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois
1967 Sculpture of the 60’s, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
1967 Philadelphia Museum of Art
1968 Options, Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1968 United States Embassy, Mexico City, under the auspices of the Museum of Modern Art, New York
1968 Park Place Group Exhibition, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
1968 Sculpture in the Park, Denver, Colorado
1969 Drawing Show, Graham Gallery, New York
1969 String Show, Janis Gallery, New York
1969 Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1970
1970 Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
1970 Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1971 Paula Cooper Gallery
1972 Sculpture in the Park, New Jersey Council of the Arts, Paramus, New Jersey
1972 Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1972 Art of the 70’s, Greenwich, New York
1973 Sculpture 1973, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York
1973 Vermont ’73, Fleming Museum, Burlington, Vermont
1974 Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York
1974 Sculpture in the Park, Bergon Community College, Paramus, New Jersey
1974 Hirshhorn Collection, Washington Museum of Modern Art, Washington, D.C. 1975 Sculpture Now, Inc., New York
1977 Sculpture Yesterday/Today, Sculpture Now, Inc., New York
1978 Sunne Savage Gallery, Boston Massachusetts
1979 Sculpture Now, Inc., New York
1979 Prospect Mountain Sculpture Show, Lake George, New York
1980
1980 Sculptors’ Studies, Glen Falls, New York
1981 Construct, Chicago, Illinois
1981 Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York
1981 University of Kentucky Museum, Lexington, Kentucky
1982 Wards Island, Environmental Artists
1981-82 Sculpture Now: Contemporary American Sculptors, Park West Gallery, Detroit, Michigan
1982 Sculpture Inv., Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky
1982 Project Sculpture, Oakland, California
1982 Painter’s Choice, Race Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1982 Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, California
1983 Group Show, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, California
1983 Group Show, Gallery 30, San Mateo, California
1983 Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, New York
1985 Sun Gallery, Hayward, California
1986 Sonoma Artists, City Hall, Santa Rosa, California
1987 Group Show, Brown Bag Farms, Petaluma, California
1987 Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, New York
1988 Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, New York
1989 Sonoma Art Gallery, Cotati, California
1989 Heather Farm Park, Walnut Creek, California 1989 “Art in the City”, Berkeley, California
1990
1990 Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, California
1990 Plaza One Market Street, San Francisco, California
1991 Brown Bag Farms, Petaluma, California
1991 Socrates Sculpture Park, New York
1991 Rental Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco, California
1991 Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California
1992 Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, California
1992 Lookout Sculpture Park, Pennsylvania
1992 Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California
1993 E Space Gallery, San Francisco, California
1993 San Francisco Design Center, San Francisco, California
1993 Brown Bag Farms, Petaluma, California
1993 Socrates Sculpture Park, New York
1993 Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California
1994 SF MOMA Rental Gallery, San Francisco, California
1994 Trident Museum, Santa Clara, California
1994 Lookout Sculpture Park, Pennsylvania
1994 Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California
1995 SF MOMA Rental Gallery, San Francisco, California
1995 Lookout Sculpture Park, Pennsylvania
1994 Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California
1996 Stoa Gallery, Petaluma, California
1996 San Francisco Yacht Club, Tiburon, California
1996 Belvedere City Hall, Belvedere, California
1996 Look out Sculpture Park West, Petaluma, California 1996 Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies, Tiburon, California
1996 Sonoma State University Gallery, Cotati, California
1997 Stoa Gallery, Petaluma, California
2000
2006 Re Show, SOMARTS, San Francisco, California
2006 Steel Gallery, San Francisco, California
2006 Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, California
2007 Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, California
2008 Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, California

TEACHING:
1965 Carnegie Technical School of Architecture and Art
1966 Pennsylvania State University
1968-77 Windham College, Putney, Vermont
Chairman, Art Department 1972-74
1980 University of California, Berkeley, California
1980-82 University of Kentucky

Art Schools:
1961-65 Brooklyn Museum Art School
1967 Cooper Union

1978 Schools of Visual Arts, New York City

HAPPENINGS:
1961 Woodstock, New York
1962 Bridgehampton, New York
1962 “Ergo Suits,” Carnival and Art Fair, Woodstock, New York
1963 Welfare Island, New York

PUBLICATIONS:
Grope Magazine, 1/1 (January 1964); 2/2 (1966)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Art News, May 1960; April 1961; May 1961; November 1961; September 1962; Summer 1966; November 1966; January 1964; January 1969 (reproduction); December 1970
David Bourdon, “E-MC 2”,
Art News, January 1966
Arts Magazine, September 1963; March 1967 (reproduction); November 1967; November 1962; March 1964; December 1966
Edwin Ruda, “Park Place: 1963-1967”, Arts Magazine, November 1967
Art in America, December 1964; January 1970; May 1970; November 1970; September 1970 (reproductions)
Carter Ratcliff, Art in America, March 1978
Artforum, September 1970; April 1970; October 1970 (reproductions); January 1978
Lawrence Alloway, “Peter Forakis,” Artforum, January 1968 Arts Magazine, May 1978

COLLECTIONS: (partial list)
Hirshorn Collection, Smithsonian, Washington D.C.
Mr. and Mrs. Albert List, New York
Larry Aldrich, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Sam Wagstaff, New York
J. Patrick Lannan, New York and Pal Beach
John Powers, New Jersey
Harris Steinberg, New York
Martha Jackson, New York
Jill Kornblee, New York
Dan Graham, New York
Virginia Dwan, New York
Mr. and Mrs. Allen G. Guiberson, Dallas, Texas
Charles Ginnever, Putney, Vermont
Lionell Bauman, New York
T. T. Husdon, Rhode Island
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
Hartwood Acres Art Center, Allegheny, Pennsylvania
Stanley Silverstein, New York
Frank Porter, Detroit, Michigan
R. Karden, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
A. Meys Pearlman, New York
University of Kentucky Art Museum
Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
Harold Schnitzer, Portland, Oregon
Roni Goldfield, California
Lowell McKegney, Petaluma, California
Susie Schlesinger, Petaluma, California
Berkeley Museum, California
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
Denver Museum, Denver, Colorado
Fort Wayne Museum, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Interland Executive Park, Walnut Creek, California
Stanford Museum, Stanford, Connecticut
Hardwood Acres, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Al and Judy Voigt, Geyserville, California
<nowiki> Ron Casentini, Santa Rosa, California

Representation
Represented by Togonon Gallery, San Francisco