Zenith Gallery
413 7th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 783 2963
zenithga@erols.com
Hours: Monday: 11-4, Tue. — Fri.: 11 — 6, Sat.: 12-7, Sun.: 12-5
Peter Handler
EDUCATION
1981
M.F.A. Rochester Institute of Technology
1969
B. A. Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
TEACHING AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1996.
Juror, Germantown Friends School Craft Fair
1995-to date
Member, Steering Committee, The Furniture Society
1995 —to date
Member, Advisory Board, Philadelphia Furniture Show
1995 — to date
Planning Committee, Abington Friends School Craft Fair
1992
Member, Board of overseers, American Craft Enterprises
1992
JUROR ACC Crafts Fairs Media Jury, Metals Category
1990
Co-curator, "Revolving Techniques," James A. Michener Arts Center, Doylestown,
Pennsylvania
1988
JUROR WBAI Holiday Craft Fair
1986
JUROR ACE West Springfield Craft Fair
1984
Jewelry Instructor, Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1981-82 Instructor, 2 — D and 3 — D Design, Rochester Institute of Technology
1980-82 Adjunct Faculty, Metals/ Jewelry, Rochester Institute of Technology
1981
Lecturer, Annual Conference, Society of North American Goldsmiths, "Technology,
Humanism, and Esthetics"
1969-78 Jeweler, self-taught
EXHIBITIONS
1992
"Please Be Seated," Crafts Council Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1990-92 "Contemporary Artifacts," American Museum of Jewish History, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
"International Lathe — Turned Objects: Challenge IV," Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1990
"Art That Works: the Decorative Art of the Eighties, Crafted in America"
"Revolving Techniques," James A. Michener Arts Center, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
1988
"Six Approaches to Metal," the Works Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1987
"Art on the Move," Chattahoochie Valley Art Association, La Grange, Georgia
1986
"Art Furniture: Designed for Living," Fay Gold gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
"Furniture in the Aluminum Vein," Kaiser Center Art Gallery
"Twice Gifted," gallery At The Workbench, New York, NY
1984.
"Interiors III" Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA
1983.
"Electronic Jewlry, " San Bernardino, CA
"Governor’s Invitational" Harrisburg, PA
1982.
"Artspace", Philadelphia, PA
1980.
"President’s Invitational," Rochester Institute of Technology
SOLO SHOWS
1993.
Two person Show, Zenith gallery ,Washington, DC
1989.
One Man Show, Works Gallery , Philadelphia, PA
1983.
Two Person Show, Cudahy’s Gallery, Richmond, VA
1980.
One Man Show , School of Applied Industrial Studies, Rochester, NY
1980.
"First Showing", Two Man Show, Strasenburgh Planetarium, Rochester, NY
1976.
One Man Show, Handworks Gallery, Englewood, NJ
COLLECTIONS
Ann Sheffer
Delores Barnett
Bruce and Judy Bendoff
Larry and Laura Gerber
Harry and Marcia Thalheimer
Grace Kraft
Sidney and Frances Lewis
Jamie Davis and Ellen Kochansky
Bennet Bean
David Bacharach
Museum of Jewis Art, Temple Emeth, Teaneck, NJ
Anne Ziff
Suzie Karkomi
Mike and Lisa Goeller
Merle Fabian
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
The Works gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC
CRAFT FAIRS
95. ACC Craft Fair, Columbus, OH
94. Washington Craft Expo
91. ACC Crafts at the Armory, New York, NY
1989-91,94-96
International Contemporary Furniture Fair, New York, NY
1978, 81-82,84-97
ACC Baltimore Winter Market, Baltimore, MD
93. ACC Northeast Craft Fair, W. Springfield, MA
1978,80
ACC Northeast Craft Fair, Rhinebeck, NY
1984-85, 87-92
The Philadelphia Craft Fair, 1992 AWARD IN METALS
1988,89,91-94
American Craft exposition, Evanston, IL
1976,82-92
The WBAL Holiday Craft Fair, New York, NY
86. The Smithsonian Craft Fair
85. Morristown Craft Fair, Morristown, NJ
1982,85,92-93
ACC Pacific States Craft Fair, San Francisco, CA
PUBLICATION
AUTHOR
Handler, Peter M. and Pirtle, John ED., "The Artists Role in a technological World"
Metalsmith, Fall 1982
Handler, Peter M. and Pirtle, John D., Section on machine, fiber optics, and electronics in jewelry,
in The Complete Metalsmith by Tim McCreight, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. 1982
WORK PUBLISHED
Montgomery Newspaper. "Craft Show Marks 15th Anniversary" , by Margaret L. Williams October 30,
1991
Creative Designs in Furniture. The Guild. Rockport Publisher, Rockport MA 1991
pp.102-103 and 18.
International Lathe-Turned objects: Challenge IV, Edited by Mary R. Heying, Tina LeCoff, and Eileen J. Silver
Port of History Museum, Philadelphia, PA , 1991. P. 49
The Guild, 1986,1987, 1988, 1990, 1991
Art That Works: Decorative Arts of the Eighties, Crafted in America, Lloyd Herman. Seattle and London:
University of Washington Press
Philadelphia Inquirer, "She Collects Religiously", By Ellen Kaye, December 14, 1989, pp. 24-5
Philadelphia Inquirer, "Something Old, Something New," by Ellen Kaye, May 7, 1989. pp.. 60-61.
Interiors. "Lighting World Special", April 19888, p. 11
MEMBERSHIPS
The American Crafts Council
The Furniture Society
The American Crafts Association
ARTIST STATEMENT
It is my feeling that art should look to the present and future, rather than the past, so that the works we create are a
statement of our own period and its realities. For me, our accelerating technology is the strongest factor affecting
late 20th century and is my philosophical starting point. My work is an attempt to create a humanized technological
metaphor: a concept that is about technology, evoking beauty and excitement through precision in manipulating
material with a grace of form and color.
My processes are casting, machining and anodizing aluminum, often using two, three or even five colors on a single
element.
To make tables I join aluminum and glass with special very strong and virtually invisible adhesives, so that the glass
becomes a structural element. Chairs and sofas are designed to feel as good to sit in as they look.
I design to exploit the strengths of the materials I use, creating images unique to the properties of aluminum, glass,
stone, and leather and fabric.
PETER HANDLER
BRIEF BIO PETER HANDLER
I started in the craft world as a self-taught jeweler in 1969, after completing my bachelor’s degree at Bates College
in Political Science. Moving to Ithaca, NY in the fall of 1969, I stared to sell my silver and gold jewelry around
Holloween (about 6 weeks after first starting to learn to work in fine metals). I moved to Candor, NY in 1971 where
I was one of the principals sating a commune, which became a commune of craftspeople. On the ending of the
commune in 1978, (after a Spring Concentration at Penland in 1975), I attended The School for American Craftsmen
at Rochester Institute of technology from 19798-1981 and earned my MFA in jewelry and metalsmithing. I was at
RIT that I stared using aluminum, epoxy resins (for color) and some color anodizing. It was also there that I started
to stop being a jeweler and stared working on a larger scale.
On a request from an interior designer at a street show in Rochester in 1981, I made my first aluminum and epoxy
resins initially, I stared using anodizing exclusively for color in early 1984, and I have been making and designing
furniture every since. Initially making tables, I used colored aluminum and glass with optically clear UV cured
resins to make structurally minimal furniture where the glass became structure, not merely a top surface.
Feeling the need to become a "complete furniture maker," I stared making chairs around 1986 or 1987, evolving into
the fully upholstered seating that has become signature work for me around 1984 or 1985. The club chairs and sofas
that I design now I see as sculptural forms as furniture. I try, in my work to achieve a quality of whimsy and
formality at the same time. I believe it is possible to express humor and elegance, seemingly contradictory attitude s
and resolve the contradiction visually.
My goal, at t he end of the century, is to have people look at my furniture 20 or 30 years from now, still love it, and
see it as good 90’s furniture. I believe that all good art or good design is dated, that is exists in the technological,
social, economic and moral context. To that extent, everything we do is a self-portrait. I believe that the art and
artifacts that a culture leaves behind tells more about whom they are than any other marker of that society.
Peter Handler, August 1998