The State Flower of Virginia is Actually a Tree-The Flowering Dogwood Acts as Harbinger of both Spring and Fall with its Early Blossoms and Changing Leaves

archival inkjet print

37 x 27 inches

Guest curated by Ron Stokes

Peter Cochrane is a multimedia artist who depicts stories of resilience and metamorphosis through the lenses of horticulture, art history, science fiction, and autobiography. Working between sculptural materials such as metals and botanical matter, to digital imaging and experimental darkroom photographic techniques, he builds objects and elaborate narrative set pieces that explore fundamental questions of human existence and cosmic time.

He received his BA from San Francisco State University (2011), and his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University (2019). His work has appeared in Headmaster, The San Francisco Chronicle, Vast Magazine, Hyperallergic, Brink, Artslant, the MoCP lecture series, the de Young Museum, the Vermont Center for Photography, the Tokyo International Photo Awards, and others. He is a recipient of the Snider Prize and has been a finalist for many awards including the Hopper Prize, the Fine Art Photography Award, the Exposure Award, and the Kodak Photo Film Award. In 2022, he was nominated for The Shpilman International Prize for Excellence in Photography. He has held several solo exhibitions nationally, and his work is in public and private collections.

He is the owner of Threep, a fine art printing and photography studio based in Richmond, Virginia, and teaches at VCUArts.