“I don’t have much money, but I got a lot of stories.”
Made with materials sourced exclusively from dumpsters, burn piles, construction sites, the forest floor and other “farm junk” scrap troves, artist Andy Peluso’s sculptural art pieces bring his raconteuring to life. The works are at times mordantly critical, yet paradoxically whimsical; often pop-culturally or historically referential; and are consistently ironic.
The colorful, seemingly blithe characters and forms camouflage criticisms on politics, consumer culture, superficiality, Western healthcare, the fallacy of equal opportunity, and, in their very nature, ecological waste. The artworks bear titles like “Pandora’s Box” for a work featuring a can of Spam, hinting jointly at nutritional barrenness and bombarded inboxes; and “Out of the Ruins,” a work inspired by (and a title taken from) Tina Turner’s “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” alluding to the comical futility in telling people, falsely, that they’re a “hero” as an attempt to repair damaged egos.
All of the sculptures are hand-carved from a piece of found pine or cedar, then painted and assembled in the home. The delicate construction of each artwork is infused with the tactile skill and craftsmanship of the life-long farmworker at their helm: diligent manipulation of the wood surfaces to reveal shapes unrealized; a careful application of color and playful matchmaking of texture; and a resulting assemblage of materials and mediums conveying, in living color, the most unsuspectingly keen of perspectives.
Though kernels of ideas may begin long before, the design and fabrication of an artwork takes roughly two full days. Working initially with the wood, Andy then moves to the first coat of paint (with a break to write a song), to sanding, on to a second coat, assembly, and drying. Though the process is relatively uncomplicated, it is underscored by decades of technique honed from woodwork, fine furniture design and fabrication, and a painting and illustrating practice. The current collection of sculptural works debuts a collaboration between all of Andy’s mediums-of-reference, alongside his decades of experience as a craftsman.
The day-to-day of his art-making is perhaps best described by the artist himself: “Sweet potatoes at 6. Guitar at 7. Painting in the kitchen at 8.”
