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Peter Glenn Oakley Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1974 -

Peter Glenn Oakley b. 1971

When you think of marble sculpture, the idealized nude figures of ancient Greece and Rome immediately spring to mind. Like those monuments of antiquity, Peter Glenn Oakley’s refined, hand-carved marble sculptures invite close viewing. But these are no mythological heroes or political leaders of the classical world. The artist’s humble subjects include a stack of Styrofoam takeout boxes, a Singer sewing machine, and a tower of cassette tapes. You might think of them as the silent, unsung heroes of modern life.

Oakley developed his carving skills working as a stonemason, making grave markers and memorials before turning to sculpture. In his hand, the marble sculpture becomes a solid ghost of what it represents—full of physical presence, but missing the functionality of the object. Inviting renewed attention to the things that populate the world around us, Oakley’s sculptures ask you to consider the concept of the ideal in your everyday life: what can’t you live without today, and how does it really look?

You get to a point looking at one of these objects where your eye is tracing along all these curves—you forget what it is that you’re looking at. Suddenly you are immersed in this visual experience. It’s important to me that the piece is conceptually tight, but I want it to be a fun visual thing.

— Peter Glenn Oakley

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    • Peter Glenn Oakley (b. 1974), Cassette Stack (Stack 2)
      Mar. 13, 2020

      Peter Glenn Oakley (b. 1974), Cassette Stack (Stack 2)

      Est: $5,000 - $10,000

      Peter Glenn Oakley (b. 1974), Cassette Stack (Stack 2) a tower of eleven cassette tapes carved from a single block of Perla Nera black marble from Nevada, 2013, mounted to hand-hewn slab of white marble with grey veins, unsigned. DOA 8.5 x 10 5/8 x 13.25 in. Peter Glenn Oakley works in the time-honored tradition of the Italian Renaissance artists, but with a decidedly modern slant. Instead of a god, goddess, or saint, his sculptures immortalized the iconic emblems of today. This stack of cassette tapes "stands" in a classic contrapposto, artfully designed and polished to emphasize the seemingly precarious balance. Considering the time consuming process of creation, this sculpture took six months to create, Oakley has a very limited production. Primarily self-taught, Oakley worked as a stone mason after graduating from Appalachian State University. His first marble sculpture, a styrofoam box, was sold in 2006. In 2012, Stack, was acquired for the permanent collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art and is currently on display in the museum's Modern & Contemporary gallery. His sculptures have also been exhibited at Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, Arkansas, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia. Purchased directly from the artist. Exhibited: Bentonville, Arkansas, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, State of The Art: Discovering American Art Now, September 13, 2014 - January 19, 2015 From the Personal Collection of Allen Thomas Jr., Wilson, North Carolina Additional high-resolution photos are available at LelandLittle.com

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