Peter Dayton in the studio. Photo courtesy of the artist.
In conjunction with the installation, Peter Dayton: Dark Garden, Guild Hall exhibiting artist, Peter Dayton, will join Melanie Crader, Guild Hall’s Director of Visual Arts, for a conversation on the installation and Dayton’s wide-ranging practice – from punk rock to site-specific installations.
Peter Dayton
Dark Garden, 2024
Ink on premium vinyl with
low-luster laminate and collage overlay
After a nearly decade-long career as a punk rock musician, Peter Dayton returned to visual art upon moving to East Hampton in the mid-1980s. Dark Garden is a site-specific installation created for Guild Hall’s stairwell leading from the lobby to the balcony of the Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan Theater. Dayton’s exploration of flowers began when he found discarded issues of House and Garden magazine from the 1950s near his home, and his collages utilize photocopied flowers from seed catalogs, which links his practice to the work of Andy Warhol and other pop artists. He chooses visually arresting images of flowers without leaves and stems—images devoid of sentiment, emotion, or specific references—allowing the flower forms to create their own patterns.
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Peter Dayton
Peter Dayton (b. 1955, New York) attended art schools in Europe in the 1970s and graduated in 1979 from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he studied visual, video, and performance art. Initially he pursued music as an art project, then became a professional musician, first in the punk rock band Le Peste, then under his own name until 1986. He turned his attention back to visual art in 1988. Dayton’s work often references various art historical movements and concepts such as minimalism, pop art, abstract expressionism, and feminism. He simultaneously explores and critiques commodity culture and art historical movements through varied materials, techniques, and presentations.
Dayton has participated in solo and group exhibitions nationally, internationally, and extensively on the East End of Long Island. He has produced numerous site-specific installations and commissions for Louis Vuitton, Chanel, the Peter Marino Art Foundation, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to name a few. This is his first project for Guild Hall.
Dayton lives and works in East Hampton, New York.
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Melanie Crader
Melanie Crader joined Guild Hall in Summer of 2023 as the inaugural director of visual arts as Guild Hall opened its newly renovated galleries. Recently, she served as deputy director at the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY, where she also served as interim director. For 8 years prior, Melanie held the role of Director of Exhibitions and Publication Management at the Hammer Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, where she was responsible for financial and administrative oversight of all curatorial initiatives, exhibitions, and publications. Managing the institution’s renowned exhibition program, she collaborated with local, national, and international institutional partners including The Met, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, MCA Chicago; Walker Art Center, Stedelijk Museum, and Pinacoteca de São Paulo.
During six years at the Menil Collection in Houston, she managed the operating budget and exhibition program, led a variety of special projects including institutional publications, oversaw major digital infrastructure initiatives, and implemented long-term budget planning for building projects and a capital campaign. Before entering the non-profit sector, Melanie worked in the marketing and communications department of an international investment company.
Originally from Louisiana, Melanie Crader, an artist and educator who taught at the university level, holds MFA from Ohio University, Athens; BA from McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA; and attended the Banco Santander W30 Program, UCLA Anderson School of Management. She is a member of the American Exhibition Organizers and served on the Steering Committee from 2017 to 2021. For several years, she served on the Board of Directors and was an Artist Board Member of DiverseWorks Art Space, Houston.
Photo: Lori Hawkins
Sponsors
Visual Arts programs are supported by funding from The Michael Lynne Museum Endowment and The Melville Straus Family Endowment.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Museum:
Shari and Jeff Aronson, Amalia Dayan and Adam Lindemann, Onna House, Lisa and Richard Perry, Laurie and Martin Scheinman, Jane Wesman and Don Savelson, and Neda Young
Guild Hall’s Learning + New Works programs are made possible through The Patti Kenner Arts Education Fellowship, Vital Projects Fund, the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Endowment Fund, and The Melville Straus Family Endowment.
Additional support provided by Friends of Learning + New Works: Julie Raynor Gross, Stephanie Joyce and Jim Vos, S. Kutler Foundation, N. Glickberg, D. Glickberg, and J. Abrahams, Andrea and Jeffrey Lomasky, Peter Marino, Stephen Meringoff, and Eva Sandler.
Free gallery admission is sponsored, in part, by Landscape Details.