COLLECTOR'S SHOW II
Peter Thomashow: A World of Wonder
curated by Varujan Boghosian


Please join us in celebrating the artist July 5th at 5pm.


Our curator, Varujan Boghosian, has been a significant artistic influence on emerging artists for quite some time. He is a master collagist, insightful curator, knowledgeable collector, and a keen observer of the artistic environment. For several years Boghosian has been attentively following the development of Peter Thomashow's extensive collection of early 20th century wooden toys and games. This collection has been amassed over the last ten years and is the palette for which his collage and constructions are based.

“What does it take to be a great collector? It takes imagination. It takes a keen eye. And it takes the obsessive pursuit of the object, whatever the cost. Peter Thomashow has all of these qualities. His collecting skills rival those such as the Hirschorns, the Mellons, and the Hearsts. He is also a great maker, this is what distinguishes him.”
-Varujan Boghosian

Peter Thomashow is a physician, collector, artist and musician living in Vermont, and is currently on the faculty at the Dartmouth College and UVM Schools of Medicine where he teaches Psychiatry. He says: “I am fascinated by invisible forces. My first collection was at age seven. It was magnets. I later (age ten) became intrigued by fluorescent and phosphorescent minerals (rocks that glow under ultraviolet light). I collected insects as a teenager and then studied the evolution of color in butterflies at Hampshire College also becoming interested in insect metamorphosis. I assembled a collection of Nineteenth Century Electro-magnetic Philosophical Instruments which is now housed in a private museum. My latest interest is a re-visit: colour and toys”.

For over five years he has been designing dioramas and collage from the toys, games and scientific objects within the collection. Thomashow says of his most recent project, "The Wolfson Memorial Laboratory of Colour," “it is a wonder cabinet of objects founded in the power of play and treasure hunting. Elements such as memory and time; the uncanny, the subconscious and the invisible are important to me."

Collectors Show II is the second in a series of exhibitions on collecting. This is the first introduction of a major show of work by Peter Thomashow.