As we enter 2017, we want to take a moment to reflect on some of our best memories here at Peter Mars Authentic over the years. Thank you to all of Peter Mars' friends, fans, colleagues, and everyone that made our journey possible. We look forward to an even better 2017. Cheers!

Paparazzi: A Peter Mars Photo Collection

Phyllis Bramson is an American painter whose artwork has been exhibited internationally, including In a Pictorial Framework at the New Museum in 1979, Phyllis Bramson, 1973–1986 at the Renaissance Society in Chicago and Gallerie Farideh Cadot in Paris. Bramson was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1993. She currently teaches drawing and painting to MFA students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

My Father is a boxing fan. So I grew up as a little boy going to fights, watching them on closed circuit TV and, (yes I’m old enough to remember) listening to them on the radio. Cassius Clay was one of my Dad’s biggest heroes, and as I came of age during the Vietnam years, I quickly understood why this made sense, and what a profound American hero Ali truly is.

On Friday, June 3, an anthology of original new Elvis artwork by Peter Mars was launched to the American public for the first time via ELVIS, an exhibit that will run throughout the summer of 2011 at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. Coming on the heels of a successful show this spring at the Pop International Gallery in New York’s Soho neighborhood, 2011 is shaping up to be an incredible year for Peter Mars! “I like to think I’m a big dreamer, but to go straight from Soho to a presidential library is just way more than even I ever dreamed,” he said.

Peter Mars in Soho NYC this Thursday, March 24, 2011, 7-9pm.

Pop International Gallery
473 West Broadway
New York, NY 10012
T. 212.533.4262

100 years at Ox-Bow School of Art

I’m driving back from Saugatuck now, leaving the forested dunes of the Michigan coastline, rounding the southern shore of the Great Lake. At I-90 the traffic builds and the pace thickens. 70mph turns to 80-sometimes-90 and the familiar industrial landscape returns. Steel mills, chemical plants, and refineries belch like giant robots mired on an oily beach. The pavement begins to beat with an anxious pulse, past Bethlehem Steel and the Cal Sag Channel. In the distance, the thumping Metropolis of Chicago emerges from its hazy horizon.

In 2009, Mars was awarded an Artist Residency at the prestigious Ox-Bow School of Art. With close ties to the Art Institute of Chicago, Ox-Bow provides an inspiring haven for visual artists, writers, and thinkers. A residency at Ox-Bow gives the professional Artist time to re-charge, re-think and re-invent, all within what can be an explosively creative setting.

Peter Mars Interviews Philadelphia Pop Artist Jeff Schaller

Peter Mars: People are always asking me, “What other artists do you like?” or, ” Whose work do you collect?” so let me just say here, My collection is real eclectic and diverse. I buy what I like, and then once I know it, i want more of of that same artist. Sometimes repeatedly and obsessively and right up and until my wife takes away my credit card. But i think alot of collectors will relate to me here, some work is so powerful, you just feel like “too much” could never be enough.

When Studio Manager Kim Shay and I went looking for advice on developing a new inventory system, we immediately thought of calling Rebecca Williams. Rebecca worked for us at The Gallery for several years and now works for the The Art Institute of Chicago, one of the most incredible museums on earth.

Throughout these visits to Memphis and in the paintings I’m making, I literally feel that Elvis is walking with me, taking me down the side streets down Monroe Street. He shows me the old Wonder Bread Bakery, and Walker’s Radiator Works, and tells me stories as we stop and watch the trolleys pass Orleans Station. At 706 Union Ave. we come to the door of a very modest little building. This little storefront is the legendary Sun Studio, the original office of the “Memphis Recording Service.”

I love Memphis but the cab ride is cold, and I’m headed for a two-star hotel downtown, so I keep my fingers crossed. I’m back in town to do an exhibit at Graceland Mansion, another at Jay Etkin Gallery downtown, and a second Sirius Satellite Radio interview.

The lobby is low frills. It has the feel of an airport rental-car counter. A uniformed valet sleeps in an armchair near the door, pretending to read a magazine that now flops on his knee. Across the courtyard I notice a rib joint all glassed in with big windows all steamy and inviting looking. Is it just a mirage? The vision of a real Memphis Bar-b-que joint, right in the carport of my hotel really looks too good to be true.

Sometimes living in a big city affords an artist a front-row seat to history. Whatever City, whatever Gotham you chose, you can bet when Batman comes out of his Cave, he’s sure as hell not tooling out into the countryside to go catfishing under a shade tree. No. When Batman comes out, he is screaming wheels to downtown Gotham, because that’s where the action is. We witnessed such an event recently when hundreds of thousands of people from surrounding states began streaming into Chicago for election night.

Peter Mars was named an official artist of Elvis Presley Enterprises. Through his collaboration with EPE, Peter has access to over 60,000 images of Elvis from the Graceland Archives, which inspired his new series of paintings to be sold through galleries and to appear on high-end, officially licensed Elvis merchandise.

The Redwalls commissioned Peter Mars to create the artwork for their 2007 self-titled release, The Redwalls and a limited edition silk screen. Formed in 2001 by brothers Logan and Justin Baren and signed by Capitol Records in 2003, The Redwalls have released three albums, Universal Blues, De Nova, and their latest, The Redwalls.

The Cool Globes exhibit is designed to inspire individuals and organizations to take action against global warming. Cool Globes commissioned Artists from around the world to paint on sculpted fiberglass globes, with each globe suggesting steps that can be taken to combat global warming.

Started by Philadelphia Pop Artist Jeff Schaller, the project spotlighted 7 of the most exciting young artists across the U.S. The exhibition was sponsored by The Art Trust Gallery at Meridian Bank, and involved the display of more than 50 collaborative artworks created by Jeff Schaller, Ellie Byrom-Haley, Sean Duran, Tom Judd, Burton Morris, Peter Mars, and Brian Petro.

Carroll Shelby, one of the greatest race car drivers of all time and legendary automobile designer, asked Peter Mars to create a group of paintings featuring some of the most famous Shelby Racing Designs. The completed Peter Mars paintings were then autographed by some of racing's most prominent drivers including Shelby himself, Phil Hill and Dan Gurney. Fans who attended the event could acquire the autographed artworks and meet with the drivers.

Chairs on Parade? It's the latest in summer street art. Two years after Cows on Parade won worldwide media attention for Chicago, the city installed "Suite Home Chicago"– a series of 350 pieces of life-sized sofas, chairs, ottomans and televisions, decorated by more than 150 Chicago area artists.

Mayor Richard Daley called the Cows on Parade project "The single largest and most successful event in the history of Chicago."

Peter Mars' cow was sponsored by Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and was auctioned off at Chicago's Navy Pier at a benefit for the Make a Wish Foundation.

Peter Mars was commissioned to do a portrait of Michael Jordan, during the heyday of the Chicago Bulls NBA dynasty.

Beginning in 1990, the Bulls fielded a team that soon became one of the greatest in NBA history, winning 6 NBA Championships in 8 years. "I got courtside tickets to various playoff games. The crowd would go absolutely out of their minds. I also had the clearances to the locker room and press conferences. I've never seen so many photographers in my life. It was pandemonium."

Peter Mars is the chairman of the juried art auction for the annual Inspiration Corporation benefit. Inspiration Cafe is a non-profit organization founded by former police officer Lisa Nigro, who in 1989 borrowed a red wagon, filled it with coffee and sandwiches and pulled it around the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago offering dignity and respect to the homeless men and women she encountered. Inspiration Corporation has grown to serve 2,500 individuals a year by providing meals, supportive services, housing, employment preparation and vocational training.