Location

not on view

Description

A draftsman and painter, Christopher Pekoc has been making collages since 1988. Photographs from his large inventory of images are cut, folded, scratched, drawn on, and perforated. Using a sewing machine, he stitches these together with materials such as coated paper, foil, and color photocopies. Many of the photographs Pekoc incorporates into his collages depict friends and acquaintances whose physical appearances intrigue him. In this mysterious, psychologically charged work, the artist uses images of thorns and a cut-and-sewn photograph of a solitary arm and hand (a favorite motif) to suggest human vulnerability.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Scratched on verso: "© / C. Pekoc / 1.9.8.8"; written in black marker on verso of mount: "Artist: Christopher Pekoc / (216) 751-0873 / Title: Untitled (Melissa's Hand and Thorns) / Size (Image) 26" H x 25 1/8" W / Size (Frame) 33 1/4" H x 32 1/4" W / Medium: Photographs, coated cover stock paper, metal foil paper, thread"

Christopher Pekoc

Christopher Pekoc American, 1941- Trained as a painter at Kent State University (1968-70), Cleveland-born Christopher Pekoc has worked extensively with mixed-media collage since 1987. To create his works Pekoc combines photogenerated imagery, often fragments of body parts and menacing objects such as thorns, spikes, and severed wings, with paint, glue, shellac, and other materials. In 1992 he was one of 11 Cleveland artists invited to participate in a poster project sponsored by the Cleveland Health Issues Task Force, Ohio's oldest aids organization. Working from the insights of Jim Kilonsky, one of his former students who was hiv positive, Pekoc fabricated his commission using as a central motif the hand-as a symbol of creation, compassion, and healing. Pekoc has had one-person exhibitions at the Akron Art Institute (1978), Kenyon College (1986), and the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art (1991), and has been awarded fellowships by the Ohio Arts Council (1990, 1994). He lives in Cleveland, teaching painting at Case Western Reserve University. A.W.
Biographical information exists in the Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

Citations

Christopher Pekoc Entry Card to 1989 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org

Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 267

Grove, Jeffrey, "From Neoclassical to The NEO Show", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 45 no. 01, January 2005 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 8-9 archive.org

Exhibition history

CMA, Feb. 6 - April 15, 1990: "Year in Review 1989," CMA Bulletin, 77 (Feb. 1990), p. 68, no. 48.

Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, 1991: "Christopher Pekoc: New Works," no exhibition catalogue.

CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art."

The May Show: 70th Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists and Craftsmen of the Western Reserve. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 28-August 6, 1989).

The Year in Review for 1989. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 6-April 15, 1990).

Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).