Who is Peter Tunney?
Peter Tunney (b.1961) is a legitimate force of nature with boundless creative energy, spreading his positive messages in unconventional ways and delivering works of art to a worldwide collector base. He creates in almost every medium: paint, collage, wood, photography, found objects, and discarded materials. His nontraditional life, cache of extraordinary experiences, and countless wild adventures serve as the foundations for his work. Since declaring himself an artist in 1987, Tunney delivers his messages of Grattitude, Don’t Panic, The Time Is Always Now, Fear Less, Love More and Change the Way You See Everything to a vast and global audience. His dynamic textual images blanket New York City, which he affectionately calls “The City of Dreams”, as giant billboards. Like magic these billboards spontaneously appear and disappear, an intentional phenomenon as Tunney himself is a trained magician. Tunney has owned and operated ground floor studios and galleries in lower Manhattan for the last 30 years. Open daily and free to the public, they embody his deep connection to and understanding of the city. In addition to his current Tribeca space on Leonard Street, for the last eight years Tunney has also maintained a gallery in the heart of Miami’s famed Wynwood Walls. As Wynwood’s first tenant, The Peter Tunney Experience has been a fixture in of the thriving Wynwood neighborhood. Throughout his 30-year artistic career, Tunney’s entrepreneurial spirit has remained strong. In 2015, he partnered with friend and developer Jessica Goldman Srebnick to form Goldman Global Arts. GGA curates and executes transformative art projects for causes, cities and corporations around the world. The GGA Gallery inside the Wynwood Walls, an offshoot of the curative branch, currently exhibits the work of and represents over 31 street artists from 16 countries who have painted murals in and around the Wynwood Walls. Yet, at his core, Tunney is much more than a visual artist and businessman. He believes in humankind and the good that results from performing countless small acts of kindness. Over the years Tunney has spent tireless human energy and donated countless works of art to deserving organizations. Most recently, his main philanthropic efforts are devoted to criminal justice reform, supporting wrongfully convicted individuals, and ending the stigma of mental illness. Tunney happily lives and works between New York and Miami with his wife Amy, their 6-year-old son Arthur - affectionately known as “Art” - and their 3-year-old daughter named "Sonnet".
CHRONOLOGY
1961
September 1, 9:32 am: Born Washington, DC at Georgetown University Hospital.
1966
Wins 1st prize in kindergarten art class.
1975
Hit by car riding on his bicycle; spends next 5 years in and out of hospitals undergoing over a dozen surgeries.
1977
While recovering from accident, learns magic, becomes professional magician.
1982
Drops out of college.
1984
Enters Wall Street; recruited by Paine Webber. Tunney begins his financial career, eventually specializing in biotechnology.
1987
Stock market crashes; Tunney opens own investment bank and declares himself an artist.
1990
Meets and spends time with Jonas Salk, the pair become business partners until Salk’s death in 1995. Tunney credits Salk as the most important influence in his life.
1991
Opens The Time Is Always Now Gallery, 476 Broome Street, Ground Floor, New York City.
1992
Opens first solo show, Shower Art, exhibiting over 6,000 laminated “tiles”. The Time Is Always Now Gallery, 476 Broome Street, Ground Floor, New York City.
1993
Meets Peter Beard and begins curating, collaborating, and exhibiting shows for the artist.
1996
November: With Robert Delpire, Tunney co-curates retrospective Peter Beard: Carnets Africains at Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France.
1997
April 1: Tunney moves the retrospective, Peter Beard: Carnets Africains to The Time Is Always Now Gallery, 476 Broome Street, New York City. Exhibition remains on view every day until January 15, 2002
2002
February 21: Opens giant solo show, It’s About Time, at The Time Is Always Now Gallery, New York City.
2002
April: Creates first PLATINOGRAPH (camera-less photograph) as homage to artists Man Ray and Duchamp. Later this year Tunney hangs entire show of platinographs.
2003
December: Tunney closes The Time Is Always Now Gallery and moves into the Crobar Nightclub, where he lives and works for the next 321 days.
2005
Opens large gallery and studio at 70 Franklin Street, TriBeCa, New York City Installs, Paradise Garage, New Works by Peter Tunney at The Highline, NYC.
2006
Solo show, I’m Not A Perfect Person, at Frank Pictures Gallery, Santa Monica, California.
2007
April 13th: Marries Amy Magee at Capitale, New York City.
2007
Tunney’s work is included in The Media, a group exhibition featuring works by Jean Michele Basquiat and Keith Haring at Brea Art Gallery, Brea, California.
2008-2010
The Peter Tunney Experiment is ensconced in the ground floor of 666 Fifth Avenue @ 52nd Street, New York City.
2009
Don’t Panic, Tunney’s Art Basel show, hangs in AE District, Miami, Florida.
2010
Meets the Goldman Family and opens The Peter Tunney Experience, inside the Wynwood Walls. 220 NW 26th Street, Miami, FL.
2010
December: Exhibits first Art Basel solo-show inside the Wynwood Walls: The Peter Tunney Experience “MY-AMI”.
2010
Summer: Solo-show, Peter Tunney: A Beautiful World, at Hamburg Kennedy Gallery, Southampton, New York.
2011
September 21st: “The Big One” PT’s first big party in a decade launches his new gallery and studio at 73 Franklin Street in NYC. The party is surprisingly attended by thousands of people, shutting down the block.
2011
Tunney’s exhibition Dictionary Daze (An Exploration of the Lexicon) A to Z, travels to Kana Manglapus Projects, Venice, California
2011
December: Dictionary Daze opens at Art Basel Miami inside the Wynwood Walls, Miami, Florida.
2012
New works showing at Pop International Galleries, SoHo, New York
2012
June: First five billboards of the GRATTITUDE Project mysteriously appear in and around New York City
2012
August: Solo show at Samuel Owen Gallery, Greenwich, Connecticut
2012
September: Seeing Things solo show opens at 73 Franklin Street, New York.
2012
December: Enough is Possible, solo show of new work opens at Art Basel simultaneously with exhibitions in New York City.
2012
Traveling Dictionary Daze exhibition debuts at the Miami Country Day School.
2013
The GRATTITUDE Project goes international with the installation of thirty billboards in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, Canada.
2013
Three unique Dictionary Daze traveling exhibitions continue touring around the United States, having now been exhibited more than ten times.
2013
December: Lost and Found opens at the Wynwood Walls for Art Basel Miami 2013
2014
Lost and Found opens at 73 Franklin Street, New York City
2014
January: Dictionary Daze travels to South Pointe Elementary School.
2014
April: Dictionary Daze makes its New York City debut, opening at Spruce Street School.
2014
June - December: Peter Tunney installation at the TriBeCa Grand Hotel is the first of the Grand Wall Art Series.
2014
August: The GRATTITUDE Project Billboards appear in Times Square, New York City
2014
December: Time Capsules opens at Wynwood Walls for Art Basel Miami Beach 2014
2015
In preparation for the GIANT Giant Polaroids Show, Tunney opens the PTography Studio at 89 Franklin Street, Ground Floor in TriBeCa. Begins shooting Giant Polaroids throughout winter and spring.
2015
Opens GIANT Giant Polaroids at new gallery at 83 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, New York City
2015
June 25: Peter and Amy welcome son Arthur Earnest Tunney, their first child, into the world.
2015
December: I’m Almost Not Crazy opens at the Wynwood Walls for Art Basel Miami Beach 2015.
2015
Tunney creates the Haiti Walls project in collaboration with Artists for Peace and Justice to benefit The Academy for Peace and Justice. Artists make inaugural trip to paint sections of the wall protecting the Academy.
2015
Time Capsules opens at 83 Leonard Street, New York City.
2015
Partners with Jessica Goldman Srebnick and co-founds Goldman Global Arts
2016
Summer show DON’T PANIC opens at Samuel Owen Gallery, 46 Centre Street, Nantucket MA.
2016
Tunney attends Toronto International Film Festival and presents Peter Tunney LIVE! at the IT House, 128 Peter Street, Toronto CANADA, to benefit Artists for Peace and Justice
2016
FEAR LESS LOVE MORE opens in the Wynwood Walls for Art Basel Miami 2016
2016
An extension of the GRATTITUDE project, thirty billboards featuring FEAR LESS, VIOLENCE IS NOT A SOLUTION, and THANK YOU AI WEIWEI appear all around New York City
2016
Tunney curates and opens group street art show The Originals, presented by Goldman Global Arts, inside the Wynwood Walls. The show features artwork by past and present artists of the Wynwood Walls
2017
Fear Less solo show opens for Art on Rivington at the Hotel on Rivington, 107 Rivington Street, New York City
2017
November: Peter is honored at ARTrageous Gala Dinner and Art Auction, New York City
2017
December: Exerpts from the Taj Mahal (The Truth Always Happens) opens at Wynwood Walls studio for Art Basel Miami Beach 2017
2017
December: The Sinking of the Taj Mahal opens on the beach at the Faena Hotel Miami Beach for Art Basel 2017
2017
Tunney curates and opens humanKIND group street art show in the Goldman Global Arts Gallery, featuring works by Wynwood Walls artists past and present
2018
February: Tunney curates humanKIND exhibition in the Goldman Global Arts Gallery booth at Art Wynwood Fair
2018
March: Tunney is featured on the Sunday TODAY Show in a segment filmed with Harry Smith in Wynwood
2018
March: Tunney supports University of Miami's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center's new mobile cancer screening and education vehicle by creating GAME CHANGER painting and donating all proceeds from its sale to the initiative. Tunney also designed a GAME CHANGER wrap from the vehicle and hosted the unveiling party inside his Wynwood Walls gallery
2018
March: Tunney supports the Who Can Relate? initiative to end the stigma of mental illness at the University of Michigan as a keynote speaker and by creating two editions of U of M themed prints and donating 100% of the proceeds to related organizations and charities
2018
Six unique Dictionary Daze shows currently traveling around the United States
2018
July 4: Peter and Amy welcome daughter Sonnet Marion Tunney into the world