Peter Tuney
Clic Gallery New York
March 1 – 25, 2012
The Untitled Magazine went to check out the book signing for “Skull Session” with multimedia artist & “art world legend” Peter Tunney. Peter’s skull works will be at the gallery on view until March 25th.
In the latter half of the 2000s, skull iconography experienced a massive cultural renaissance. Alexander McQueen, arguably the most influential designer of the last twenty years, adopted the skull as his brand trademark in the early 2000s; reproducing it on everything from scarves to jeweled clutches. Meanwhile, in 2007, British infant terrible Damien Hirst sent shockwaves through the art world when he sold a diamond-encrusted human skull for $122 million dollars. Gradually, throughout the course of the 2000s, skulls shed their more macabre, foreboding implications and became widely accepted as signifiers of not only dark luxury and good taste but of the precariousness and preciousness of human existence. It is in this spirit of celebration that Pop artist Peter Tunney began creating his mixed-media artworks featuring the same skull — an image scavenged from a vintage dictionary — silkscreened atop one-of-a-kind collaged found images and esoterica. “The skull is a symbol of our mortality and a common thread that ties every single one of us together. What is so intriguing is that there is a history to each and every skull. They are magical, transporting touchstones of all humanity.” And indeed, Tunney’s skulls are boldly graphic, smart, and palpably infused with the artist’s signature sense of joie de vivre; each piece telling a different story about life’s complexity and ultimate simplicity after all is said and done.
In the spirit of this zeitgeist, Farameh Media recently released Skull Style, a gorgeous tome exploring depictions of the skull in contemporary art and culture. A thousand limited edition copies are individually hand-painted and collaged by Tunney himself. During the “Skull Session” at Clic Gallery — a reprise of the wildly popular “Skull Session” held at Miami’s Soho House during Art Basel — Tunney be unveiled some of his newest works and signed and collaged copies of Skull Style in person.
