Peter Foucault at CH&D
A couple of weeks before this magazine cover came out, I met with Peter Foucault to discuss his ongoing work. At that time, he was looking forward to installing Attraction/Repulsion at the SFMOMA museum café and a prospective multi-media collaboration with SFAI colleague, Jenna North, addressing issues of climate and global warming.
Peter Foucault is a multi-media artist who creates self-perpetuating systems responding to elements of chance. His investigations have led to incorporating robotics, biological medium and climatic factors, such as the wind and rain, into his artwork. An Oakland resident, Foucault is graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2007 with an MFA (although he is originally from Washington by way of graduate studies and awards in Hawaii and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris). His work consistently uses external influences to explore a collaborative process between human and machine through the medium of drawing, and was lauded by Kenneth Baker (San Francisco Chronicle, “Foucault’s Robots”, 9/29/07) with the note, “Foucault’s procedure connects his work with the Surrealist lineage of automatism, the chance-enamored strategies of Fluxus and oddities on the fringes of art such as Harold Cohen’s computer-generated drawings.”
Foucault creates works on paper, sculptures and installations that are fueled by his love of drawing and mark making. He created a series of “drawing-projects” that produced complex abstract compositions, and videos referencing the act of drawing. At the root of these projects is a constant tension between control and the loss of control. His work is concept driven, and often uses objects that reference printmaking and the multiple.
The majority of Foucault’s works are created at on-site installations over the course of exhibitions, such as NASA Aimes Research Center (Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2007), Art Now Fair | Art Miami (Micaela Gallery, December 2007), and a recent solo exhibition at the Richmond Art Center (External Influences, September 2008), where automaton, artist, and audience all contribute to his interactive installations.
That’s a lot of kudos for a young artist. But, in case you think that’s where it ends, here are a few more for art aficionados to ponder: Foucault’s work was acquired in 2005 by the Getty Institute and placed in their artist book collection, he is currently on exhibition at the SFMOMA’s Caffé Museo through May 12, and his work prominently graces the cover of California Home and Design‘s magazine current issue.
We don’t know where his work will show up next to delight and surprise us with his thoughtful technique and imageries, but I do say, “Go! Visit the SFMOMA’s Caffé Museo!” … see this casual show while Foucault’s art is up, and have a cultured cup of coffee…!
Micaëla Gallery 