Artist Bio

Peter Konsterlie (1963-2018) was an award-winning artist with over twenty-five years of experience in all areas of Fine Art, Design, Film, and Video Production. Graduating from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, he became an accomplished painter, with exhibitions that included The Aldrich Contemporary Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Plains Art Museum, Carnegie Mellon in Washington D.C., Westport Art Center, Sacred Heart University, and the Sarah Bowen Gallery in Williamsburg New York. Konsterlie’s works are featured in numerous public and private collections including Disney Studios, Guthrie Theater, Mighty Ducks Features, Mall of America, Minnesota State Fair, and the P.T. Barnum Museum. His community efforts included Altered Book Auction for the Westport library, NUTUREart, Art for Haiti, Aids Awareness Auction, Green Chimneys, Aids Benefit, Kids with Disabilities, Children Defense Fund, Beat the Odds, and Charles Schultz Tribute for 9/11 heroes. Peter was a professor of art history at the University of Bridgeport’s Shintaro Akatsu School of Design (SASD) and the director for the Schelfhaudt gallery at the University curating many remarkable shows.

Artist Statement

Drips of paint and spray painted patterns become a structure for images to bleed through and meld with; tag sale items and other discards are employed. Growing up I loved artists who relied on assemblage as their way of creating. Now I feel the days of Rauschenberg are over. I’m interested in creating a “whole” painting, not a composition of parts. I believe pattern can build structure and repeating patterns hold power. Dots are a reference to Lichtenstein but also celebrate the difference between automatic marks and gestural brushwork. Lately I’ve considered how line and color are distinct devices – having always believed color informs shape, now I see color as a different expressive avenue, an element discrete from line. Color embodies a gestural approach in my line work, and an analytical mark in painting. My drips are the painting’s aspect and color introduce a pattern.

WAC, SOLOS Exhibition
"Konsterlie's work also incorporates documentation in paintings that resemble the studies of a scientist exploring the layers and compartments of the human body. In Konsterlie's work, the artist's process is intentionally transparent – which he mirrors in his compositions' through visible transparent washes of the paint and dissected layers in his presentation of the cosmos."
--Amy Mackie, Assistant Curator New Museum, Art 21

"I was immediately drawn to the dynamic composition of Konsterlie's work. The paint and color create an interaction and depth most likely achieved through great effort and skill. Konsterlie's style demonstrates an interest in historical abstract painting and experimentation."
--Leslie Shaffer, Executive Director Artspace, Corcoran Gallery

Radius Exhibition, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
"Konsterlie employs medical diagrams of the human body, taking already abstracted anatomical information and reinterpreting it in an intuitive and expressionistic manner. The artist utilizes a variety of techniques, including spray painting through stencils and accidents involving controlled drips and fluid staining of the canvas. Konsterlie transforms what might be merely grotesque into the strangely beautiful, with compositions that speak of the fragility of the human body."
--Richard Klein, Exhibitions Director Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum