Artistry is proud to present Savannah Bustillo and Peter Scheidt’s Armatures in the Inez Greenberg Gallery at the Bloomington Arts Center. Peter Scheidt and Savannah Bustillo are two artists who transform everyday materials into powerful reflections on identity, history, and interaction. Scheidt reimagines discarded chairs by dismantling and rebuilding them, blurring the line between function and form while honoring the original object’s craft and character. His surreal, reconfigured furniture invites viewers to reconsider how objects shape our physical and emotional spaces. Bustillo combines making and anthropological investigation to explore spaces in the margins – where identities not easily reconciled are placed. She explores the residues of language, memory, and cultural inheritance through delicate, participatory materials like pulp, tea, and spices. Her work investigates the weight of words and the labor embedded in small, repetitive acts—shaping toothpicks, picking flowers. Together, their practices uncover hidden systems of meaning, inviting audiences to engage with the overlooked and the everyday in entirely new ways.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Peter Scheidt's concept-driven studio practice is grounded in the craft of furniture making and woodworking. Scheidt investigates the boundaries of functional objects, transforming found furniture into thought-provoking sculptures. Rewriting scripts of familiar objects, he creates surreal and uncanny forms that invite reflection on function, non-function, and meaning. The original identities of his salvaged materials are never erased but instead become integral to an open dialogue between object, artist, and viewer.
Beyond his studio practice, Scheidt has engaged in social practice with "Kurbside Spoons," a bicycle-based woodshop for carving spoons from discarded furniture. He often shares his craft through lectures, artist talks, and demonstrations and previously taught professional development courses for Little Rock Public School District educators.
Scheidt holds an MFA in Furniture Design and Woodworking from San Diego State University and a BA from Brown University. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the Wharton Esherick Museum (PA), Space4Art (CA), SooVAC (MN), St. Louis Artist’s Guild (MO), and Sulfur Studios (GA). He is currently Assistant Professor of Wood + Material Studies at Iowa State University. Scheidt previously taught at the University of Arkansas Little Rock, where he started and managed an urban wood reuse program
Savannah Bustillo (she/her) is a queer, second generation, Colombian-American printmaker,bookmaker, and papermaker from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She combines making and anthropological investigation to explore spaces in the margins – where identities not easily reconciled are placed. She received a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis, and is completing her MA/MFA at the University of Iowa in printmaking. Her work has been shown throughout the US, including the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, The Morgan Conservatory, Women’s Studio Workshop, and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, where she has been both a semifinalist and finalist for the MCBA Prize. Bustillo was awarded the Jerome Emerging Printmaker Fellowship in 2021 at Highpoint Center for Printmaking and the SGCI Emerging Artist Award in 2024. Her work is held in over 40 collections throughout the US, including Harvard University, Yale University, UCLA, and the Walker Art Center.
