The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Sculptor Peter Woytuk debuts newest art installation
LAKEVILLE » Argazzi Art Gallery owner Judith Singelis welcomed visitors to the opening night party on Saturday, July 22 for internationally renowned sculptor Peter Woytuk’s show Peter Woytuk — Unique 2017.
Argazzi Art opened its doors in 2003, housed in the original 1800’s building of the Lakeville Journal newspaper. The gallery showcases artworks within four separate spaces, each with an abundance of natural light.
Woytuk has lectured at the University of Minnesota, Owings-Dewey Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico and at the AIA Conference in Duluth, Minnesota. His artwork has been showcased in The Palm Beach Post, New York Times, Bangkok Post and in an article by John Jarvis, “Animal Magnetism” that was published in Art Talk in January 2003. Additionally, as a young artist beginning his career in Santa Fe, New Mexico, The International Herald Tribune boldly proclaimed him as “the greatest animal sculptor of the Western world in the closing years of the 20th century.”
He majored in Art at Kenyon College in Ohio, and discovered his perfect medium and technical skills when apprenticing for Connecticut sculptor Philip Grausman in the early 1980s. Fascinated by the inquisitive, mischievous nature of ravens, he has focused on these black birds, now totaling over thirty individual sculptures, including a group of ravens jauntily perched on a fence in Kent, Connecticut. Two of his large bronze bulls are prominently displayed on the campus of The Hotchkiss School in Salisbury, and his first outdoor exhibition, Peter Woytuk on Broadway, was a tour de force in 2011 with various versions of his beloved black birds, two 2,500-pound bronze bulls and two magnificent elephants, among many other animal sculptures.
The artist’s decision to create large-scale sculpture led him to use foundries in China and Thailand, which have the capacity to melt 10,000 pounds of bronze into a single pour. This has enabled his work to grow in ever larger scale, but his creatures are always in his inimitably playful style.
“In my recent work, “natural style” in the shape of sticks, limbs and splittings from the backyard woodpile have become the sculptural building blocks in assembling a piece,” he said. “Once cast into bronze, these new pieces are a dynamic mixture of objects and textures.”
Pictured is a bronze on granite artwork titled “Magpie on Acorn (Chartreuse)” which was immediately sold. In the background is Peter Woytuk’s newest work, an installation titled “School” with bronze fish.
Argazzi Art is located at 22 Millerton Road in Lakeville, and the show PETER WOYTUK-UNIQUE 2017 will be featured through September 20.