The New West: The Natural Environment in the Digital Age

installation of new west in library gallery

Torreya Cummings and Terry Peterson

Torreya Cummings’ conceptual investigations draw together memory, art historical narratives, and a semblance of dioramas found in history museums. Their work encompasses photography, sculpture, installation, performance and video. In their most recent work, Cummings interrogates the unsettling relationship of history and fiction, employing drag aesthetics, substitutions, hardware store materials, props, and sets to reveal the constructed nature of landscape and our perceptions of the natural environment. Cummings received a BFA from University of California, Davis and an MFA in sculpture from California College of the Arts. They are currently a Bay Area Fellow at the Headlands Center for the Arts which provided studio space and additional funding to produce work for this exhibition. Cummings lives and works in Emeryville, California.

Terry Peterson is a sculptor who transforms repurposed objects into living, breathing installations. Born and raised in Fort Bragg on the Northern California Coast, his kinetic sculptures often recast visual elements derived from his upbringing in a blue-collar town once recognized for its thriving fishing and lumber industries. In his most recent work, Peterson explores ideas of metamorphosis and transformation through iterative imagery generated by a mummified trout. The fish, along with other motifs, centers the work at the intersection of humans, animals, and the environment. Peterson earned his BA in Art from the College of Creative Studies at University of California Santa Barbara, and received an MFA in Studio Art from University of California Davis. Peterson lives and works in Sacramento, where he is Professor of Studio Art at Sacramento City College.