BIO

Peter Eric Schroth is a first generation American born to 2 German parents who loved emotionally heavy art and incredibly loud classical music. He was raised in Atlanta, Georgia and spent most summers with family in Germany. Art, music and travel were a constant and important part of the Schroth household.

Schroth received his BFA from the University of Georgia with a concentration in sculpture. He received his MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro also with a concentration in sculpture and shortly thereafter he quit making sculpture. The flame had seemingly flickered out.

He then opened a coffeehouse so he could hang other people's art on the walls. Having acquired an MFA in sculpture it seemed like the sensible thing to do and it actually worked well. He was able to attract many of the west coast artists whom he greatly admired. With the coffeehouse doing well he convinced himself he should open a bar. It seemed like a great idea and he really wanted to host more bands than what the coffeehouse could handle. This turned out to be an absolutely horrible idea and his life was quickly and completely off the rails…sparks and fire and no brakes. So, he closed the bar, sold the coffeehouse and moved the family out to the country with 4 goats, a few chickens, a litter of kittens in the barn and hopes of figuring out what the hell just happened.

The farm life was good for a while, but then a rock ‘n’ roll band called and asked if he knew anything about doing concert lighting. He lied, because he wasn’t a very good farmer and he really needed a job. He said, “absolutely without a doubt I can do that I do it all the time”. He had never done it, but all of a sudden he found himself touring the globe with The Avett Brothers and using his sculptor skills to sculpt with beams of light. This was never in the plan, because there wasn’t a plan, but it turned out to be quite a wonderful thing. Over the years Schroth managed to do lights for Ringo Starr, Patti Smith, Band of Horses, and Mike Mills of REM. Music and art and travel had all come together and by some strange miracle, life was back on the rails. Somewhere along the way he even got nominated for an Emmy for concert lighting.

Photography became a passion while on the road and then at some point in 2018 he decided he wanted to fully get back into the visual art world. He had never played with oil paints so that seemed to be a good place to start. For a few years he hacked away at some canvases figuring out the nuances and strange smells of oil painting. In time he managed to crank out enough work to pull together an exhibition at a gallery. Things were happening.

Schroth now paints primarily with acrylics and cranks out the occasional sculpture. He has found that “love” seems to be the reoccurring topic of his work.