Peter Opheim (b. 1961) is an American artist who lives and works between New York City and San Cristobal, New Mexico. Born in Landstuhl, Germany, Opheim graduated with a BA in Economics and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1983. With a lifelong passion for art, he began his career as an abstract artist before experiencing a shift in his stylistic approach.
Opheim’s paintings feature fantastical, biomorphic characters stemmed from the artist’s imagination. From clay figures to the canvas, these characters are the personification of a complex psychology, introducing the viewer to a world where the synergy of childlike imagination and adult emotions reflect on what it means to be human.
Peter Opheim has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including ‘Friends’ at PAHO Gallery (Yokohama, 2023), ‘Explorers and Brothers’ at Powen Gallery (Taipei, 2022), ‘Carnivores Plants and Invisible Magicians’ at Askeri Gallery (Moscow, 2021), ‘Swamp and Cave’ at Cohle Gallery (Paris, 2021), ‘Shipwreck’ at D’Stassi Gallery (London, 2021), ‘Wunderkammer’ at Rood Gallery (New York, 2017) ‘Fables of the Eleven Rooms and Six Houses’ at Zevitas/Marcus Gallery (Los Angeles, 2016) and ‘HERE’ at The Columns Gallery (Seoul, 2011).
He is the recipient of the Pollock/Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, 1995 and the Fellowship Award for Sculpture from the New York Foundation for the Arts, 2017. His work has been collected across the globe, shown in the United States, Korea and Singapore and is part of private collections in China, Hong Kong, Europe, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, and the UK.