Peter Agoos designs permanent and temporary works at all scales, for start–ups, industry–defining giants, small nonprofits, and international NGOs. He collaborates productively with production companies, media designers, fabricators, creative partners, and city agencies. His public art projects in Boston have been funded by the Fort Point Channel Operations Board, Friends of Fort Point Channel, the Fort Point Arts Community, and the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics and have been supported by Boston Art Commission, Public Works Department, City Engineer, Coast Guard and Harbormaster.
Recent highlights: “Seat Light Control,” a winning entry in Boston’s first Public Space Invitational competition (2014); “Tropical Fort Point,” a temporary installation in Fort Point Channel (2014); Creative Director for illumination of Boston Children’s Museum (BCM) for 100th year celebrations (2013); “C is for Clamp,” with Diane Fiedler, an art/exhibit installation for BCM’s “An Alphabet of Inspiration: Artists Celebrate 100 Years of Collections” (2013); “Arts Imbalance,” a temporary installation above the Fort Point Channel (2012); set design for the Opportunity Nation Summit at the Apollo Theater, Harlem (2011); Creative Director, Executive Producer, and Stage Designer for MIT’s sesquicentennial convocation (2011); a 17–foot wide Phylogenetic Mobile of mammals whose genomes have been sequenced, for The Broad Institute’s DNAtrium (2010); set design for “Present Imperfect,” a staging of 6 short Pinter plays (2009); calendar designs for the public health NGO Partners In Health (2007–2011); architectural design of an intimate rural home (2008); installation team leader for the east side 90th to 96th Street section of Christo & Jeanne–Claude’s “Gates” in Central Park (2006).
Biographical miscellany: Peter has juried art competitions and done studio crits at RISD, the GSD, and Boston Arts Academy. He was a volunteer carpenter on Partners In Health’s 300-bed hospital construction project in Mirebalais, Haiti in 2012-2013. And he serves on the board of The Farm School, connecting people of all ages to the land and helping train the next generations of farmers in sustainable agriculture.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My public work has three goals: to alter our perceptions of familiar places; to reflect and comment on public issues of general concern; to improve the quality of the built urban environment.
PUBLIC WORK
2014-2016:
“Seat Light Control” A winning submission to the Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics’ Public Space Invitational competition. The concept, to be prototyped in 2016, is furniture with a purpose, transforming the ubiquitous vertical “tombstone” lighting control boxes scattered along urban sidewalks worldwide into a street-side public amenity, housing the lighting control equipment in a horizontal cabinet whose door doubles as a bench surface.
“Tropical Fort Point,” selected and funded by FPAC’s annual Temporary Public Art in the Fort Point Channel competition, is a temporary installation of 16 floating Majesty Palms moored in Boston’s Fort Point Channel. It is both a preview of the potential effects of global climate change and sea level rise, and a tongue–in–cheek claim on the Channel’s wetscape as an unexploited green space. The project was included, along with Kara Walker’s “Marvelous Sugar Baby,” in Food & Wine’s “7 Powerful Pieces of Public Art You Should See Right Now,” and prompted Boston Magazine to dub Agoos a “visionary.”
2013:
On the occasion of the Boston Children’s Museum’s (BCM) 100th anniversary, Agoos was commissioned to be the Creative Director for a weekend of celebrations that included elaborate programmed exterior illuminations of the building and an outdoor performance by 400 members of the Boston Children’s Chorus with the Museum as the backdrop.
“C is for Clamp” (with Diane Fiedler) is an art/exhibit commission for BCM’s “An Alphabet of Inspiration: Artists Celebrate 100 Years of Collections.” Two dozen guest curators—artists, designers, teams, and community partners—were invited to create interior window installations throughout the museum. These guest curators were asked to develop concepts incorporating a letter of the alphabet and highlighting objects from BCM’s extensive natural history, cultural, and historical collections. Our natural history concept, proposed to use for any of several letters—G is for Gently; O is for Ovum; E is for Egg; S is for Shell; etc.—was selected for the letter C. It displays eggshells from 18 species, held gingerly in the jaws of steel C-clamps.
2012:
“Arts Imbalance,” the first FPCOB pilot grant program recipient, is a pair of larger-than-life-size cut-and-folded figures, inspired by the classic artist’s wooden manikin, poised foot to foot on a bright yellow line stretched above Fort Point Channel between the superstructures of the Summer and Congress Street bridges. The figures balance on the thin line one up, one down — the heavier bottom manikin counterbalances the top — arms outstretched, tilting and swaying to the thrust of the wind before righting themselves. The dichroic surfaces of the piece constantly change the reflected colors of the planes of the figures. Conceived as a whimsical expression of the dynamic balancing act that is the customary state of affairs for artists and craftspeople in the urban economic milieu.
2010:
The Phylogenetic Mobile resulted from a commission by the Broad Institute to “enliven” the science exhibits in the public DNAtrium display area, which highlights the genomic research underway in the Institute. The 17′ x 8′ aluminum and stainless steel mobile is suspended overhead. It is art combined with rigorous science, accurately displaying the evolutionary biological relationships between the 30 mammals whose genomes had been entirely sequenced as of 2009: the crossbars linking related species and the vertical elements representing the time passed since the evolutionary divergence of neighboring animals from a common ancestor.
WORK HISTORY
1975–Present: Agoos D-zines LLC. Principal. Installation art; exhibit design; set deign; multi-media staging design; creative and art direction; event production; graphic and web design.
1997-2002: Wellspace Inc., a clinic-base complementary and alternative medicine start-up. VP, Design & Experience, responsible for all public-facing design (architecture and interior design, advertising and promotion, Informational communications) as well as all aspects of client and practitioner experience.
1975-1985: An eclectic mixture of creative work including film production, set design for theater and television, media production, art direction, graphic design, and carpentry.
OTHER
1999-2014: President, Board of Trustees, The Farm School Inc.
1995-1998: Board member, Shady Hill School
1976-1978: Board member, Boston Film & Video Foundation
16 plants are individually moored in a 4 x 4 grid, rising and falling with the tides and shifting up to 25' to all compass points at the whim of wind and tidal flow. Installed from late April through early June.Wrestling one of the floating assemblies over the side after picking up the mooring line placed a week earlier. Each assembly weighed about 110 pounds.The figures balance foot to foot on a 1.25" yellow line stretched between the superstructures of two bridges. Installed for 3 months during the summer.Dichroic Mylar film created continually changing reflections.The mobile is a 3D version of a classical phylogenetic tree, showing in this case the 30 mammals whose genomes had been fully sequenced by 2009.The mobile is part of the DNAtrium exhibits at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, a leading center for genome research.A programmable LED & robotic lighting installation, for the Museum's 100th anniversary celebrations, painted the museum exterior with ever-changing color and pattern.A programmable LED & robotic lighting installation, for the Museum's 100th anniversary celebrations, painted the museum exterior with ever-changing color and pattern.One of 24 installations featuring Boston Children's Museum's extensive collections. Egg shells ranging in size from tiny House Wren to huge Ostrich are matched with adjustable C-clamp as supports.Museum visitors checking things out during installation.
