Peter Coffin (artist)

Untitled (Tree Pants), 2006 Peter Coffin. Installation at Wanas Foundation and Sculpture Park, Sweden

Peter Coffin (born 1972, Berkeley, California, United States) is an artist based in New York City. His work is exhibited internationally and features in several prominent collections.

Coffin received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Davis in 1995, subsequently attending Carnegie Mellon University and receiving an MFA in 2000.^{[citation needed]}

Peter Coffin is currently collaborating with Al Jaffee inspired by his undergraduate personal encounter with the modern dance choreographer Twyla Tharp. He is the nephew of artist Robert Smithson who introduced Coffin to the study of plant consciousness before Smithson died July 20, 1973 when Coffin was just a year old. In 2010, Coffin developed a library cataloguing system for the Library of the American Society for Psychical Research in New York City utilizing the colors cast on the library's shelves by the natural light passing through the library's Tiffany Stain Glass Windows.

Select exhibitions

Coffin has exhibited his art solo internationally in museums and galleries including, among others:

• Turn on the Lights, (2004) South London Gallery, London, United Kingdom
• Collection (or, How I Spent a Year), (2004) MoMA, New York City, U.S.
• Hello Headspace (2005), Gallery Fonti, Naples, Italy
• The Idea of the Sun (2007), Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France.
• All Robots Welcome (2010), Social Grease Gallery, Lichtenstein
• Don't Knock If You Wouldn't Enter (2009), Al Abarr gallery, Dubai, UAE.
• It Chooses You (2004), Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York City, U.S.
• Natural Habits (2004), The Paine Art Center, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, U.S.
• Limousine Code (2005), Living Room D Lyx Gallery, Malmö, Sweden
• Model of the Universe (e.g. sweet harmonica solo, e.g. the idea of the sun, e.g. Frisbee dog catch in mid air, e.g. brightly colored gem stomes, e.g. the desire for a tropical drink, e.g. dance sweat) (2007), Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
• Tree Pants (2007), Herald St, London, United Kingdom
• When Interwoven Echoes Drip into a Hybrid Body Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Long Island City, New York City, U.S.

Galleries

Coffin is represented by Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Miami and Paris and by Herald Street in London. Please note Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Miami closed for business in 2010.

Permanent works

Works by the artist can be seen at:

• Dia:Beacon, New York
• Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
• Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
• The Wanås Foundation sculpture park, Skåne, Sweden:
  • Untitled (Tree Pants); jeans tailored to trees in the park (collaboration with Levi Strauss & Co).

Audio work

In 2005, Coffin released the Music for Plants compilation album with tracks from forty artists including Ara Peterson, Ariel Pink, Arto Lindsay, Sun Burned Hand of the Man, Jutta Koether, Alan Licht & Tom Verlaine, LoVid, Christian Marclay, Dearraindrop, and Mice Parade.

External links

• Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, artist page
• Saatchi-Gallery, artist page
• Peter Coffin at Artfacts.