Artist’s Statement: Peter Marcalus

 

I’ve been drawing, painting, carving and sculpting almost all my life. Figurative art has always been my focus.

 

Ancient myths/legends, theatrical stagings, museum dioramas, religious, classical Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian and Egyptian art as well as exposure to renown art in New York museums and galleries have influenced my creative direction. My childhood home was also filled with Wedgewood Greek/Roman style ceramics plus paintings and drawings by a great uncle who painted in a post impressionism style.

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During my early days I made portraiture as well as narrative sculptures. However, in 2012, I began making shadow box tableaus. These wall mounted, painted sheet metal boxes are all about the size of shoe boxes. They are a throw-back to childhood years of making shoe box art projects, model making and playing with toy soldiers. But they also are inspired by travel to historic art destinations. These figurative sheet metal, pictograph compositions have design references to ancient Attica pottery and ancient stela grave markers but with modern themes revolving around romanticized personal experiences, political and social statements.

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Several of my sheet metal box constructions are painted to look like corrugated paper or terracotta. For others pieces, I’ve “pickled” their galvanized sheet metal surfaces because I like the subtle glimmer of the metal to show. I see my dioramas as modern-day amphora vessels. There are parallels between modern consumer goods packaging and ancient pottery vessels: both used during the transport or storage of goods, they perform utilitarian purposes and their outer graphic designs inform. Like decorated ancient ceramic vessels, my shadow boxes also have illustrative narratives. However, my shadow boxes are vessels that contain depictions of our era’s cultural and social happenings or my stylized personal memories.

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Over the last four years, I have also has been making life size, outdoor figurative sculptures. These are scaled up shadow box figures that are free standing, sculpted pictographs. Swords To Plowshares (2020), Run To Reading (2022) and Diaspora (2023) are installed in various permanent outdoor public venues in northern NJ.