In Memory of His Memory: A Memorial Exhibition Honoring Peter LenzoNow on view at McMaster Gallery, University of South Carolina

In Memory of His Memory, is a memorial exhibition honoring the life and legacy of acclaimed ceramic sculptor Peter Lenzo (1955–2024). On view through Thursday, June 26 at McMaster Gallery. This exhibition celebrates a singular artist whose work fused Southern folk traditions with deeply personal storytelling, resulting in an unmistakable and profoundly moving body of work.

Lenzo was nationally recognized for his sculptural self-portraits, inspired by traditional Southern face jugs and transformed through his own surreal, emotive, and often fantastical lens. His work explored themes of identity, disability, spirituality, memory, and family—bringing raw vulnerability and symbolic power to every piece. With layered textures, embedded objects, and haunting facial forms, Lenzo’s sculptures occupy a unique place at the crossroads of contemporary art and historical tradition.

Born in New York City and raised in Detroit, Lenzo began working with clay at just ten years old. His early passion for ceramics became a lifelong vocation after witnessing his brother throwing a pot on the wheel. After a life-changing bicycle accident at the age of 22 left him with chronic seizures, Lenzo adapted his practice—eventually embracing clay exclusively after he could no longer safely work with wood. His physical limitations became a creative catalyst, influencing the visceral energy and fractured beauty of his forms.

“My ceramic sculptures came from traditional Southern face jugs,” Lenzo once wrote. “It just seemed to be in my bones. It felt like I had made them before—that I was catching up where I had left off.”

Lenzo’s work is held in private and public collections across the country, including the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, the Columbia Museum of Art, the South Carolina State Museum, and The Mint Museum. He was also widely published in exhibition catalogs, scholarly texts, and national art publications. His influence continues through the many students and fellow artists he mentored during his lifetime.

Let us remember him not only through the work he left behind—but in the lives and imaginations he forever shaped.McMaster Gallery is located at 1615 Senate Street at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. Gallery Hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.