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Richard Pepitone: Curiosity and the Figure

September 26 ­ October 31, 2003

 

"Some of my work in this exhibit is raw, some sophisticated -- from complicated techniques I used early on, to my more simplified methods now. I'd just like the viewer to walk away saying 'wow.'"
 
Richard Pepitone
 

Born in Brooklyn in 1936, Pepitone became an apprentice to sculptor Alfred Van Loen in Greenwich Village at age 20, opened his first studio in the East village, studied in Florence, Italy and has been working in Provincetown for over 30 years. Through these years, he has sought variety in creating sculptural forms, working in polyester resin, bronze, raku and copper from recycled pipes, all of which will be represented in this show. (right: Richard Pepitone, Metamorphosis, bronze)

During the 70's and early 80's, Pepitone created female figures of life size dimension and form in polyester resin in his "Negative Dimensional Form" series, sanding and polishing them to perfection. He moved to bronze in the mid-80's, discovering classical bronze fragments of the female figure more lovely to his eye.

In the late 80's, Pepitone began to think about the pollution generated from his work. Wanting to make his process more sensitive to the environment, he began creating abstractions of the human figure assembled out of found objects.

Finding three weathered oars at the Provincetown Harbor, Pepitone leaned them against the walland one day they spoke to him. He was led to contemplate abstract figures and images akin to Native American iconography, shields and totems. His highly praised, Homage to the Fishermen, now stands in the park at the foot of MacMillan Wharf in Provincetown, and a bronze edition will also be on display during the show in the sculpture garden at the Cape Museum of Fine Arts.

 

 

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