Collection Online as of June 28, 2022
Untitled (Melissa's Hand and Thorns)
Christopher Pekoc
(American, 1941-)
Gelatin silver print, gold foil, paper, and thread
Image: 66.1 x 63.8 cm (26 x 25 1/8 in.)
Herbert Ascherman, Jr., May Show Purchase Award for Photography, 1990 1989.395
© 1988 C. Pekoc
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.
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.