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.
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 La 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, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Guild Hall, to name a few.
Dayton lives and works in East Hampton, New York.
Photo: Lindsey Morris
Melanie Crader
Melanie Crader is the museum director and curator of visual arts at Guild Hall, where she leads the institution’s visual arts program, curatorial strategy, and stewardship of the collection.
Since joining Guild Hall in 2023, she has curated exhibitions including Julian Schnabel: Selected Works from Home; Functional Relationships: Artist-Made Furniture; Mary Heilmann: Water Way; Joel Mesler: Miles of Smiles; Arcmanoro Niles: Forgotten Words I Never Got to Say; Ross Bleckner: NEVER THE LESS; and A Creative Retreat: Portraits of Artists.
Crader previously served as deputy director of the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, NY. She was formerly director of exhibition and publication management at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and earlier held key roles at the Menil Collection in 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: Sara Amani and Timothy Ward, Danielle Anderman, Shari and Jeff Aronson, The Artist Profile Archive, Amalia Dayan and Adam Lindemann, Cara and John Fry, Susan Lacy, Robert Longo and Sophie Chahinian, Onna House, Lisa and Richard Perry, Laurie and Martin Scheinman, Jeff and Audrey Spiegel, Hillary and Jeff Suchman, Barbara Tober, Jane Wesman and Don Savelson, Neda Young, and an anonymous donor.
Free gallery admission is sponsored, in part, by Landscape Details.
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.