Bio:
Peter Cunicelli is a Philadelphia artist who has been working with clay since 2000. As a student at The Clay Studio, he discovered hand built vessels and soon began rolling out slabs of his own. During this time, he began developing forms by studying traditional thrown forms and cutting templates. He has experimented with a variety of glazes and techniques and has worked in Raku, wood fire, porcelain, paper clay, cassius bassalt and other stonewares. His current studio practice builds and expands upon the desire to create forms that push the boundaries of form that are balanced between the dramatic and the refined.

Statement:
My work explores form through movement, tension, and balance. I start with a basic form and alter, distort, and reconfigure it to create instability and energy, often using linear fields of color to heighten the effect. Twisted and interrupted joins create relationships that shift from every vantage point.

Balance is both a formal strategy and a way of thinking about lived experience. My sculptures move between stability and precarity, structure and improvisation, sculpture and craft, and the personal and professional. I’m drawn to forms that seem to be constantly adjusting themselves, never quite settling into place.

Implied anthropomorphism is integral to the work. Through proportion, gesture, posture, and balance, the sculptures can suggest vulnerability, personality, or even a kind of awkwardness without becoming figurative. Awkwardness and imperfection are intentional. I want the forms to feel alive while remaining objects, inviting a physical and open-ended encounter with them.