Currently on view:
Barbara Peters
Making Arrangements
A longtime collector of art, Peters also has a distinctive eye for the poetry in commonplace
objects. Her Old Market studio is the site of a 10-year, expansive archive of items found along
her way in thrift stores, estate and yard sales, on the street or in nature. While some of the
items she chooses are recognizable—shells, toys, photographs—others are so divorced from
their original function—street sweeper brush blades or unusually shaped shell fragments—that
they are free to behave as pure compositional elements as well as derive new meaning when
juxtaposed with similarly repurposed items.
The primary frames for Peters’ compositions are shallow boxes, most of them eyeglass trays
long ago discarded by a local commercial operation. Their status as disused objects with a
prior history and certain patina of age sets the ideal framework for the arrangements of
similarly cast-off items within. For Peters, a small tableau might represent a personal story or
set of moments that compelled the arrangement to form a new narrative. More broadly for the
viewer, the boxes are miniature cabinets of curiosities filled with delightful textures and forms in
which humble objects are elevated into new containers for memory and imagination.
Hours
Monday: Closed
Tuesday – Saturday: 12 – 8 PM
Sunday: 12 – 6 PM