Maija Peeples-Bright
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Maija Peeples-Bright (born Maija Gegeris; 1942) is a Latvian and American painter and sculptor, famous for being one of the pioneers of the Funk Art movement in the Bay Area in the 1960s.[1]
Early Life
Peeples-Bright was born in Riga, Latvia in 1942. In 1945, the town she lived was occupied by Nazi Germany and was bombed during the Soviet invasion. She and her family fled to Germany, where they were forced into German refugee camps from the time she was three years old to the time she was eight years old. In 1950, she and her family immigrated to the United States, settling near Sacramento, California. In 1955, Maija Peeples-Bright became a naturalized U.S. citizen along with her parents.
Education
Peeples-Bright attended high school in Sacramento, California. She then enrolled at the University of California, Davis in 1960, originally majoring in mathematics. After learning she need an art class to meet General Education requirements, she enrolled in first art class, taught by William T. Wiley. She then changed her major to art and went on to pursue a Bachelors Degree in Art. Wayne Thiebauld became her graduate advisor, and she finished her Masters Degree at UC Davis in 1965. While there, she took classes with Robert Arneson whom she later befriended, as well as Roy De Forest and David Gilhooly.
Career
Funk Art
The Funk Art movement began with the artists in and around San Francisco, California, in the 1960s and 1970s. The word "funky" as an adjective was first used to describe the artworks of those creating art at the end of the 1950s in the Bay Area of California. [2] Funk art can be traced back to the University of California, Davis, to artists like Maija Peeples-Bright, Robert Arneson, and Roy De Forest. Other notable funk artists were David Gilhooly, Bruce Conner, Peter Saul, and Manuel Neri. Ceramicists Peter Voulkos and Clayton Bailey are also affiliated with Funk Art as are Patti Warashina and Viola Frey. Joseph Bueys, Chris Unterseher, Ed Keinholz, Robert Hudson, and Luis Cruz Aceceta are other well-known artists associated with the movement. Funk Art is also related to another art movement with similar aesthetics called Nut Art. Jim Nutt and Gladys Nillson were associated with Nut Art, as well as the Chicago Imagists’ group called the Hairy Who. Funk artworks reflect the zeitgeist of 1960s America, as the Vietnam War continued on, and the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Liberation Movement continued.
Candy Store Gallery
In 1965, Peeples-Bright had her first exhibition, held at the Candy Store Gallery located in Folsom, California, a small city near Sacramento. Founded by Adeliza McHugh, the gallery was open from 1962 to 1992. Peeples-Bright showed there regularly throughout the three decades it was open. Along with Maija Peeples-Bright, Robert Arneson, Roy Deforest, some of the artists who showed their work at the Candy Store Gallery were David Gilhooly, Clayton Bailey, and Peter VandenBerge, among others.
Rainbow House
In 1965, Peeples-Bright married David Zack, a professor at the Art Institute of San Francisco. They boutht a house together in the Haight-Ashbury region of San Francisco, later dubbed The Rainbow House, since it was painted in a myriad of colors. Notable artists and musicians would often come by to visit.
Style
All sorts of animals feature prominently in Peeples-Bright’s work, just as dogs did in the works of Roy De Forest. A signature feature of Peeples-Bright’s style is filling animals and trees with other animals. Most of her paintings and sculptures contain a playful sense of humor. Peeples-Bright’s works are filled with color. Her style could be labeled Maximalist due to the wealth of objects, flowers, and animals she can fit onto the canvas.
Notable Works of Art
See-Saw Beast, 1965
Beast Given a Hand, 1966
Beast Haystacks, 1966
Beast Kiss, 1968
Beast Box, 1968
King Solomon’s Place with Lightbulb 1968
Joy Foal Laughter, 1997
Lotus of Love Says Hare to Love, 2001
Personal Life
Maija Peeples-Bright married Earl Peeples in 1972 and moved to El Dorado Hills; Earl Peeples died of cancer in 1999. She married Bill Bright, a close friend of Earl Peeples, in 2000, and they moved to Rocklin, California. Bill died of bladder cancer in 2015. Maija Peeples-Bright has gone by the names Maija Gergeris, Maija Zack, Maija Woof, Maija Bright, and Maija Peeples.
Collections
Select Permanent Collections
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
La Jolla Museum, La Jolla, California
Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Davis, California
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada
Matthews Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona
Burlington Art Centre, Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
University of Saskatchewan Museum, Regine, Canada
Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary Alberta, Canada
Other public collections of her work exist in England, Japan, and Brazil. Notable collectors of her work were actor Vincent Price, and the owner of Tower Records in Los Angeles.
Select Solo and Group Exhibitions
Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY, 2019
Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden, 2019
Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA, 2019
Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Davis, CA, 2019
Transmission Gallery, Oakland, CA, 2019
Candy Store Retrospective, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2018
Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2018
Nut Art Retrospective, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2017
b. sakata garo, Sacramento, CA, 2017
NADA, Miama, FL, 0217
Transmission Gallery, Oakland, CA, 2016
Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA, 2014
Sacramento Temporary Contemporary, Sacramento, CA, 2013
Blue Line Gallery, Roseville, CA, 2011
Solomon-Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 1996-2011
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, 2009
Pence Gallery, Davis, CA, 2007
Exploding Head Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 2006
MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, 2005
Art from Adeliza’s Candy Store, Folsom History Museum, Folsom, CA, 2005
Exploding Head Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 2004
Funk-A-Delic, Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 2001
Anya Horvath Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 1994
Hanson Fine Arts, Fresno, CA, 1992
UC Davis, Davis, CA, 1992
Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA, 1992
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, 1991
Schneider Museum of Art, OR, 1990
I. Magnin Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 1989
The Candy Store, Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 1989
Rubicon Gallery, Los Altos, CA, 1983
Welcome to the Candy Store, Crocker Art Musuem, Sacramento, CA, 1982
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, 1980
American River College, Sacramento, CA, 1977
Memorial Union Gallery, University of California Davis, CA, 1976
California Women Artists, California State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA, 1975
Susan Whitney Gallery, Regina, Sasketchewan, Canada, 1975
Gathering Nuts in May, Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA, 1973
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, 1972
Nut Art, California State University, Hayward, CA, 1972
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, 1972
Nelson Gallery, University of California Davis, CA, 1972
Crocker Art Musuem, Sacramento, CA, 1971
Mathews Art Center, Tempe, AZ, 1971
Hansen-Fuller Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1969
Sacramento Community Center, Sacramento, CA, 1969
The Grotesque Show, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, 1967
La Jolla Art Museum, La Jolla, CA, 1967
Belmonte Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 1965
Candy Store Gallery, Folsom, CA, 1965-1991
References
- ^ "Juxtapoz Magazine - "Dinner for Two": Featuring Funk Art Legend Maija Peeples-Bright and Oakland Based Artist Sam Spano". www.juxtapoz.com. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
- ^ Walker, John (1973). Glossary of Art, Architecture and Design Since 1945. England: Clive Bingley, LTD. p. 99. ISBN 33794000067602.
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