Peyton Pitts – Visual Artist

Peyton Pitts

Artist Statement:

Sublimating the desire for communion is the core of Peyton Pitts work. She seeks communion with contemporary and past artists by tracing and appropriating their (our) visual lineage. The work Peyton Pitts makes features images and objects directly appropriated from art history as well as from a personal lexicon of visual metaphors and symbols for aspects of her experience like love, death, humor, and culture.

Peyton Pitts uses the figure to locate the work within the physical world and to reiterate the tangibility, or intimacy, that printing, drawing, and mark-making already suggest. These figures, along with the image as a whole exist in way that is non-intrusive and that allows the viewer to rest quietly with the work. Creating a visual silence is important to Peyton Pitts because it emphasizes the reverence and esteem with which she holds these figures and objects. Her goal is to archive, catalogue, celebrate, and perpetuate the things that she finds beautiful or profound.

“The process of drawing is something nearly all visual artists share regardless of preferred media; this is true of contemporary, emerging, and past artists. Because of how invested I am in perpetuating pieces of my/our visual lineage, it seems fitting to me to use a medium thats applicable to a variety of movements/artists/epochs. Its commonality also makes it non-intrusive and quiet, the way that I want these images to be presented. Collage allows me to have bold, flat swatches of color that juxtaposed with the subtlety of the graphite, creates contrast and variety in the objects sitting on the sheet. Additionally, collage removes the level of commitment required of drawing something directly on a page; with collage you can move around the pieces until you figure things out. Figuring things out/getting them to look “right”, and displaying a very strong intuition or sensitivity to composition are all vital in making an image for me. This level of control with material is important because it’s a subset of the control I exercise in isolating specific images and fragments of images and then using them to create this world. Most of the work is on 22 x 30 “ paper; I was first introduced to this “full sheet” format as a printmaking student, and it’s served as a sort of pivot point throughout the years since. This format, my adoration for the materiality of paper, as well as the debossed line I use in many of my drawings all reference considerations and processes unique to printmaking.”

EXHIBITIONS:

2018 “Flatfile & Digitalfile”, H & R Block Artspace, Kansas City, Missouri
2018 ”All Tomorrow’s Parties”, curated by Kelly John Clark and Jonah Criswell, La Esquina, KCMO
2018 3rd Annual “Hot Hands” Drawing Exhibition ( hosted by Front / Space ), The Drugstore, KCMO
2017 “SPRING BUDS”, Brainfreeze Comics, Nashville, TN
2017 2nd Annual “Hot Hands” Drawing Exhibition ( hosted by Front / Space ), The Drugstore, Kansas City, Missouri
2017 “Take Care”, Artist & Craftsman Supply, KCMO
2016 “Flatfile & Digitalfile”, H & R Block Artspace, KCMO
2016 “Hot Hands” Drawing Exhibition ( hosted by Front / Space ), The Drugstore, KCMO
2015 5th Year Anniversary Exhibition, Centric Projects, KCMO
2015 “Printmaking, whatever”, KCAI Printmaking Galleries
2015 “It’s the landscape that screams”, with Daiana Oneto and Christian Dahl, Vacant Farm, KCMO
2015 BFA Exhibition, H & R Block Artspace, KCMO
2015 “The Stillness of a Former Hour”, Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, KCMO
2014 “An Introspective Formally Known As Prints”, Centric Projects, KCMO
2014 “Printmakers & Heartbreakers”, Spring End of Semester Exhibition, KCAI Printmaking Galleries
2014 “Flesh & Form” Exhibition, Dodge Painting Gallery, KCAI
2014 “Living with the Spirits: Decorating Homes in Traditional China”, Chinese New
Year Exhibition, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, KCMO
2014 End of Semester Exhibition, Spring, KCAI Printmaking Galleries
2013 “Lithography Show”, KCAI Printmaking Galleries
2013 End of Semester Exhibition, Fall & Spring, KCAI Printmaking Galleries
2013 “KIDDO” Pop-Up Shop, curated by Florentino Diaz, Photo Gallery, KCAI
2012 End of Semester Exhibition, Fall, KCAI Printmaking Galleries

EDUCATION:

2015 Kansas City Art Institute, KCMO ⎖ BFA Printmaking, Art History

PUBLICATIONS :

2018 Seeking the Sacred Self in the work of Peyton Pitts, writeup by Emily Cox on
Informality Blog
2015 BBS : AVWTFH, (self-published documentation of thesis body of work)
2015 The Compendium, (Publication of graduating seniors’ work in Art History & Creative Writing)
2015 The Pitch, Vol. 34, No. 40– April 2 – 8
2015 Issue 10 : Sprung Formal
2013 Issue 1 : Bad Luck, KIDDO
2013 “Memoir Issue”, Not Sorry Zine

EXPERIENCE:

2016 Editing/Document Design, Railroad Signal, LLC, Tulsa, Ok
2014 Teaching Assistant, under Kelly John Clark, Pre-Collage Art Lab, Printmaking, KCAI

COLLECTIONS:

Cerbera Gallery, KCMO
Centric Projects, KCMO
Studios Inc., KCMO
Kansas City Art Institute Print Archives, KCMO
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, KCMO
Various Private Collections

AWARDS:

2012 – 2015 KCAI Grant
2011 – 2015 KCAI Competitive Merit Scholarship
2011, 2013 – 15 President’s List Academic Achievement Award