Peter Harkawik is an artist working in sculpture and photography.
Education
Writing in the New York Times, Roberta Smith described him as "a younger sort-of painter who favors decals on clear vinyl." He studied at Hampshire College, University of California, San Diego, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Yale University.
Career
His work has been shown in Los Angeles, New York and Paris and is held in several private and public collections. He frequently explores themes of visual perception and intersubjective communication, often drawing from the fields of industrial design and architecture. He lives and works in Los Angeles, where he is represented by Thomas Solomon Gallery.
Harkawik"s work often contains an unacknowledged temporal component: "Foreign instance, in Harkawik"s installation Flesh & Flash (retrofitted) (all works 2010)--a single photograph of the artist"s hand gripping a bulbous daikon, the index finger mangled (having once been injured by a belt sander), appeared for weeks to be the work"s only component.
However, on the final night of the show, Harkawik, adding paint to the photo"s surface, introduced a latticelike wooden construction to the wall and a chair to the space, thoughtfully positioned for ideal viewing."
In addition to his studio practice, he has also curated several exhibitions including, in 2011, Touchy Feely, a show exploring connections between visual art and architectural discourse around Critical Regionalism. Critic Geoff Tuck remarked, "Harkawik’s exhibition is subtle and deft, and that the works he has chosen to explore his problematizing of Frampton’s 1983 thesis are beautiful and challenging." In 2010, he moderated a panel discussion on the legacy of typisierung since the Deutscher Werkbund.
In 2013, he co-curated exhibitions with Laura Owens at Night Gallery in Los Angeles and at Gavin Brown"s enterprise and Venus Over Manhattan in New New York In October, 2012, Harkawik installed a large-scale wax and plaster sculpture in the downtown Los Angeles Public Library.
Recent group and solo exhibitions:
2005
J"en rêve, Fondation Cartier pour l"Art Contemporain, Paris, France
2006
Smash and Tickle, 16:1 Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2007
Origin is the Goal, LACE (curated by Darin Klein), Los Angeles, California
2008
From Panic to Power, Angstrom Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Reality Testing, LACE (curated by Victoria Fu), Los Angeles, California
2009
Whitney"s Biennial, curated by Elise Rasmussen, New York, New York
Sculpture/Sabbath, Peter Cooper Park (curated by Jory Rabinowitz), New York, New York
2010
The Way Morning Broke.., Annie Wharton Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Three Tall Men, Space 1520 (curated by Ben Lord), Los Angeles, California
Seven Card Study, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles, California
Stille Post, Kinkead Contemporary, Los Angeles, California
Hearts of Palm, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2011
Festival of Lights, Knowmoregames (curated by Jacques Vidal), Brooklyn, New York
Word Salad, Yale University of Art, New Haven, Connecticut
Invagination, Kara Walker Studio, New York, New York
Night Gallery at the Chateau Marmont, Chateau Marmont, Hollywood, California
2012
Your History is Our History, Praz-Delavallade, Paris, France
Cite Internationale Universitaire de Paris, Paris, France
Summer Selections, Thomas Solomon Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Foundered Planetarium, Works Cited (curated by Olivian Cha), Los Angeles, California
2013
National Public Radio Bar, Knowmoregames, Miami, Florida
Rose, Cleopatras (curated by Jory Rabinovitz), Brooklyn, New York
Panic Room, Knowmoregames, Brooklyn, New York
Made in Space, Gavin Brown"s Enterprise/Venus Over Manhattan, New York, New York
Works Sited, Reprised, Cleopatras (curated by Olivian Cha), Brooklyn, New York
Made in Space, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, California.