Yours, Mine & Towers, Once Upon A Tower, The Height Report, Tower de Force, Erections. Peter Shire: Towers with Ranch Dressing looks at the ways in which towers have influenced Shire’s work, popping up again and again, in actual and in abstract forms.

Towers are omnipresent—they are a daily part of our lives, yet often we don’t see things that are right in front of us. For Shire, the tower has been a core symbol and allegorical emblem of his life and work in Los Angeles. Towers have become signifiers of nostalgia, joy, memory, and anxiety—snapshots of the way California was and is, and of how it continues to inspire.

Utilizing film stills, archival photography, and classic works of art in juxtaposition with his own work, this book explores Shire’s ongoing connection with towers, providing insight and giving us a greater understanding of one of the most undefinable and playfully subversive artists of our time.

Edited and designed by Peter Shire and Lisa Tchakmakian. 

FROM THE PR TEAM: PROFESSIONAL & POLITE

Peter Shire (b. 1947, Los Angeles, CA)

Peter Shire is a Fine Artist, a Painter, a Sculptor, a Potter, a Craftsman, a Furniture Maker, and a Designer of Interiors and Fantasy Structures. He is simultaneously interested in creating functional objects and impossible objects. His work eludes all attempts at categorization and renders the traditional labels obsolete.

Shire was born in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he still lives and works. His work can be found throughout much of Los Angeles as Shire is imbued with the ethos of the city. A prime example being his installation “Angel’s Point,” which sits atop Elysian Park along the Chavez Ravine overlooking Dodger Stadium and Downtown—encapsulating Los Angeles from a post-modern vantage point among the palm trees, smog, and other Los Angeles landmarks.

Shire studied at Chouinard Art Institute, now Cal Arts, in the 1960s, under Ralph Bacerra and Adrian Saxe, whose influence can be seen in the levels of whimsy and contemplation that play into Shire’s own practice. His interest in Pattern and Decoration, a movement from the 1970s and 80s, brought to his work an amalgamation of decorative and folk-art traditions. His interest in clay started early on and was grounded by predecessors like John Mason, Ken Price, Ron Nagle, and Peter Voulkos, who all liberated the medium from its practical applications.

In 1977, Ettore Sottsass spotted Shire’s work in the new-wave magazine WET and invited him to visit Milan. While in Italy, Shire became a founding member of MEMPHIS, the radical design collective. During this time, Shire’s very specific language found light and his practice became global.

Shire has a vast exhibition record, having shown his work throughout much of the world at such places as Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Jewish Museum, New York; Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Gallery Saito, Japan; among others. His work can be found in museum collections such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Stedlijk Museum, the Netherlands; Total Contemporary Art Museum, South Korea; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, United Kingdom, among others.

Lisa Tchakmakian is an artist, producer, and creative director based in Los Angeles. She received her Master of Fine Arts from USC Roski School of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California, in 2003 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California, in 2001.