A white marble sculpture of open Styrofoam takeout boxes stacked on top of a gray, rectangle-shaped base.

Images(2)

Stack

Artist Peter G. Oakley American, born 1974

Date2011

MediumWhite marble

Dimensionsoverall: 15 × 24 1/2 × 20 1/2 in., 425lb. (38.1 × 62.2 × 52.1 cm)
height, width, and depth: 12 × 18 1/2 × 10 in. (30.5 × 47 × 25.4 cm)
base: 3 × 24 1/2 × 20 1/2 in. (7.6 × 62.2 × 52.1 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the William R. Roberson Jr. and Frances M. Roberson Endowed Fund for North Carolina Art

Object number2012.10

On View

Not on view

Label TextOakley skillfully re-creates everyday items—bars of soap, Styrofoam containers, egg cartons—out of marble, transforming the otherwise ordinary into extraordinary fool-the-eye sculptures. His use of marble—the material of ancient Greek sculpture or works by Renaissance artists—allows viewers to make associations based on that material’s history and assume that the work is from another era. But such views are confounded by Oakley’s subject matter.

His sculptures represent everyday objects typically disposed of in the trash. Their short lives are followed by a long afterlife as garbage. By reimagining them in marble, Oakley makes an impermanent item permanent, creating monuments to otherwise discarded objects.
[L. Dougherty, 2023]ProvenanceThe artist; with Flanders Gallery, Raleigh; sold to NCMA, 2012.Published ReferencesDavid Menconi, “Focus on homegrown art: Museum spotlights artists from across the state,” Raleigh News & Observer (September 1, 2013), mentioned 1D.

“Close to Home: A Decade of Acquisitions,” in North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Fall 2013), illus. (color) 20.

Don Bacigalupi, et al, State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now (exhibition catalogue) (Bentonville, AR: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 2014), illus.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, Flanders Gallery, "CODEWORK," March 2-April 20, 2012.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Close to Home,” August 18, 2013–August 10, 2014.

Bentonville, AR, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, “State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now,” September 12, 2014–February 23, 2015, cat. illus (color) 31 and on separate card.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Chisel and Forge: Works by Peter Oakley and Elizabeth Brim,” September 12, 2015–March 20, 2016.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "PARTICIPATE: Activate the Senses," December 18, 2021-July 2, 2022.
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