Peter Simensky was a beloved friend, partner, brother, son, community builder, activist, and vibrant human. He was a transdisciplinary artist who explored value and the volatility of art objects through sculpture, print, video, and sound, among other mediums. He lived in NYC and the Bay Area, while Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine continued to be places of home.
Peter loved exploration in nature, from kayaking the islands of Southern Maine as a child, to studying Buddhist art in Nepal while at UC Berkeley, road trips, water hole hikes, surfing Pacific Oceans from Oregon to Mexico, and more. He loved vibrant cities, food and dancing; playing with the children in his life; joining social justice movements for liberation; he also made space to sit in reflection. After Berkeley, Peter became a carpenter and then got his MA at CUNY’s Hunter College. While at Hunter, he started to hone in on his ongoing areas of art interest: from the creation of currency to the dispersal of gold dust, he mined histories, materiality, and ephemerality.
Peter brought people together in social, art, and education spaces. Most recently Simensky chaired the Graduate Fine Arts MFA at California College of the Arts. Prior to this he was beloved Graduate Chair at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, leading school programs to Mexico City and Oaxaca, among other innovative collaborations. Peter was also a core faculty member at Maine College of Art and Design, where he helped develop their low residency art program, and brought this experience also to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Peter was a unique teacher and mentor, always supporting and elevating other artists and creators, while continuing to deepen his art practice exploring and complicating the essence of art objects.
His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art; Museum 52, Museum 500meter, Sapporo; and Project Row Houses, Houston. Simensky’s performances and installations have been featured at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, The Swiss Institute, Wattis Institute, the ICA San Francisco, 18th Street Art Center, Cabinet, and the de Young Museum. He has received grants, residencies and awards including: NYFA Fellows Grant, Oregon Arts Commission / Ford Family Opportunity Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants, MacDowell Colony, La Tallera Proyecto Siqueiros, and Skowhegan to name a few. Selected group exhibitions have been included at The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Sculpture Center, Palais de Tokyo; Mass Moca, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, and Socrates Sculpture Park.