TAC nominates Peter Chinni for Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts

The Taos Arts Council (TAC) is pleased to nominate Peter Chinni for the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

This renowned artist will be turning 90 on March 21, and the Taos Arts Council is planning to honor him at the Inaugural TAC Gala dinner (March 25) as our nominee for the Governor’s Award. Chinni’s career spans over 70 years, and his work is as fresh and exciting as any artist we have ever seen.

Peter Chinni’s art has always been original and dynamic. He has inspired numerous artists of Taos and beyond in seeking their own path to creativity. Whether at a local restaurant or an art opening, his persona, always gentle and kind, radiates with the aura of the consummate artist.

Peter Chinni relocated to Taos in 2003 and has been focused as a sculptor for over 50 years. At 90 years of age, he continues to work every day in his studio, creating with an imagination he still retains from his youth. He is vibrant and living proof that old age is a state of mind he has never adopted. He still views the world and his surroundings with fresh eyes.

Taos is considered an artist colony in New Mexico, rich in artists of one kind or another, but there are only a handful of artists that come close in caliber, experience, and worldwide recognition to Peter Chinni. He truly is a Taos treasure and now should be recognized as an artistic treasure of excellence in the arts in the state of New Mexico.

(From his website) At 89, Peter Chinni has enjoyed a distinguished career that began in the 1950’s and spans two continents. Born to Calabrian immigrant parents in Mount Kisco, New York in 1928, Chinni studied at the Art Students League in New York where he caught the attention of the great Italian critic and art historian, Lionello Venturi. With Venturi’s endorsement, he attended the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, studying painting and portraiture. In 1949, he left the Accademia to study privately with painter Felice Casorati in Turin and later with the cubist sculptor Roberto Melli in Rome.

You can read the remainder of his bio and see his body of recent work on his website – http://peterchinni.com/about-forte/