Meet Peter Cordova, October’s featured artist
As part of our ongoing 40th anniversary celebrations, we are featuring a different CE artist and logo every month of 2023! Read more about our 40th anniversary and our featured artists ▸
Peter Cordova shows his work in the studio
Rich and earthy palettes of yellow, burnt umber, and turquoise; meticulously detailed renderings of indigenous cultural activities. The prodigious Peter Cordova’s art is instantly recognizable, but it could never be more beloved than the artist himself.
"I want to speak for myself through my art. I try to share my heritage with other people. If people are not willing to see what you express, how do they know, if you are not telling them?” — Peter Cordova
One of seven siblings, Peter Cordova immigrated to San Francisco from the Philippines at the age of 19. After visiting a friend at Creativity Explored, he joined the art program in 1996. He had never created art before.
Flash forward 27 years – Peter “considers artmaking his nine-to-five job,” says Studio Director Paul Moshammer, “drawing every single day.” A proud Filipino and American citizen, Cordova is inspired by the many cultures that have touched him throughout his life. He fondly remembers his childhood in the Philippines, both in conversation and in his art practice; his works are also influenced by his appreciation of Indigenous peoples and cultures of the Americas. When asked what is most important to him, Peter responds, “my family, my country, and my culture.”
“I get ideas from images, like the Nature Channel and National Geographic. I see things that inspire me, like ‘Indian’ head dresses and their decorations and how they dress up.”
Peter Cordova stands in front of the CE studio in 2001
You can often find Peter working intently on an addition to his ongoing series of landscapes, which represent tropical climates and the desert mountains of the American Southwest. In these lush, graphic, frieze-like drawings, he depicts plant life, people, and animals in atavistic harmony. These works contain immense amounts of detail about an imagined daily life of native people, blurring the line between a mythical retelling of ancient life and reconstructions of pre-Colonial records. In his drawings and sculptures, Peter incorporates a wide variety of American tribal and Filipino motifs, creating a mythos all his own that spans centuries and diasporas.
Peter’s fascination with indigenous art and cultures began shortly before he began working at Creativity Explored. Piqued by looking through old copies of National Geographic, Peter’s interest in a wide variety of indigenous art has dominated his practice for the past three decades.
Untitled by Peter Cordova, 2019, ceramic sculpture, 12 x 10 x 10 inches (30.5 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Peter is also well known for his larger-than-life ceramics, which appear almost as if subjects from his drawings had sprung to life from the earth itself. His handbuilt busts and statuettes are sculpted with precision, both in their form and in the application of rich, natural-toned glazes. These ceramic works incorporate both human and animal characteristics, complex hairstyles, and ritualistic embellishments and attire.
“Ceramics are my favorite – I can assemble it, I can make it like a puzzle,” says Peter Cordova.
Peter excels in hand-building techniques, emphasizing the naturalism of clay with his unique aesthetic. He is always willing to share wisdom from his many years of sculpting, from hollowing out busts to using specialized tools.
In celebration of a quarter-century working at Creativity Explored, Peter had a solo exhibition and retrospective at the CE gallery in 2022, To the Place Where I Grew Up. The exhibition paid homage to Cordova’s native Philippines and his long-term interest in Indigenous American cultures, and featured over 60 drawings and paintings on paper, matte, and chipboard, as well as his signature ceramics.
“He is an artist through and through.”
Peter’s steadfast dedication and unyielding work ethic over the years have paid off: in the decades since he joined CE, his work has been shown nationally and internationally in dozens of exhibitions at venues like the UNTITLED ART FAIR, Track 16 Gallery (Santa Monica), the California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Art, SFO Museum, Jack Fischer Gallery, Bedford Gallery (Walnut Creek), and internationally at Museum of La Creation France (Begles, France) and Funabashi Cure Gallery (Japan). In 2020, Peter was commissioned by the Svane Family Foundation to create 25 works for a prestigious art auction benefiting ArtSpan. In 2022, an installation by Peter was installed in the newly refurbished KQED headquarters in the Mission.
Vintage photos of Peter Cordova at the Creativity Explored studio
“Working, making money and contributing to my family is important to me.”
In addition to working at CE, Peter recently retired from a 27-year career at Safeway, where he worked as a courtesy clerk. A natural ambassador for the disability community, Peter would often invite grocery shoppers to CE shows and be recognized in the studio by visiting locals. Before retiring, he was very proud to receive a Customer Service award. Now, Peter spends most of his time at home with family, continuing to make art with fervor.
Peter continues to be an integral member of the Creativity Explored community. In the past, you could always find Peter welcoming newcomers to the studio, making everyone feel at home with his calm, friendly, and positive demeanor. He is extremely generous and thoughtful, sometimes bringing his mother’s home-cooked food to share with the studio. He has even been known to help open the gates to the gallery and announce to artists when their buses arrive.
In his free time, Peter loves eating Filipino food (especially adobo) and watching basketball with his brother (his role model is Steph Curry!) He considers fellow artists Loren King and Ricardo Estella among his friends, as well as the teaching artists he works closely with.
