Mark Peiser, an internationally known glass artist, was born in Chicago in 1938. After studying Electrical Engineering at Purdue University (Lafayette, Indiana, 1955-1957), he received a Bachelor of Science in Design from Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, Illinois, 1961). Peiser studied Piano and Composition at DePaul University School of Music (Chicago, Illinois, 1965-1967) before attending Penland School of Crafts (Penland, North Carolina) in 1967. After five weeks of glass classes, he became the first Resident Craftsman in Glass at the school. Peiser is a founder of the Glass Art Society, of which he is now an honorary member, and a leading presence in the Studio Glass Movement.
Peiser has exhibited worldwide and is in many public and private collections including the Asheville Art Museum, the Chrysler Museum of Art, The Corning Museum of Glass, the Glassmuseum Ebeltoft, the Lucerne Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, The Museum of Art and Design, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art among others.
Peiser was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Craft Council (1988) and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass (2004), the North Carolina Governor’s Award (2009), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Glass Art Society (2010) and the North Carolina Living Treasure Award (2011) among others.
Mark Peiser lives and works in Penland, North Carolina.
Photo: © Susie Silbert
