PETER HARVEY

Peter Harvey 

Born in Guatemala, of English parents, Peter Harvey first began drawing and painting when he came to the U.S. to attend highschool. He continued his artisitc education at the University of Miami in Coral Gables and later at The Art Student's League in New York where he painted under Will Barnet and Harry Sternberg.

Well known in New York as a theatrical designer, the apogee of his theatre career was in 2004 when he was commissioned by the New York City Ballet to redesign "Jewels" which he had originally designed for George Balanchine in 1967. This ballet masterpiece with it's original decor Peter has also recreated for the Marinsky in St. Petersburg, the Semperoper in Dresden and for La Scala Ballet in Milan. Other high-lights of his 30 years in the theatre have been the full-length Balanchine ballet "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for the Zurich Opera Ballet, the original New York and London productions of "The Boys in the Band" and the hit musical "Dames at Sea".

Since 1987, Peter devotes his time almost exclusively to the art of painting in the U.S. and France. He works in both oils and watercolors. He has presented three one-man exhibitions in New York City;  "The Unknown Remembered" at Nicholas Davies & Co. (1996), "Other Rooms" at the Hudson Guild (2005), and "Finding Venice" at the Emily Harvey Foundation (2012). He also had a one-man show in Los Angeles (2006) at the Risk Press Gallery entitled "Text/Eros". Peter has exhibited in several group exhibitions in New York at White Columns, the Vincent Lewis Gallery, The Velez Art Center, the N.Y. Historical Society and the Leslie-Lohman Museum over recent years. Internationally he has shown in London at John Martin's on Albemare Street.

Peter's professional listings are in "Who's Who in American Art" and in "Who's Who in the Theatre". He has been honored for designs in both television and the theatre. His theatre designs have toured in an exhibition around the world and have been reproduced in publications ranging from textbooks to theatre histories.

During the last six years Peter has curated two exhibitions at the Leslie-Lohman Museum in Soho: "Stage Struck", a collection of scenic and costume designs by some 90 artists and most recently (2013), "Paul Thek & His Circle - the 1950's" co-curated with Jonathan David Katz with great success.