“A time of deep introspection and solitude” led Peter Speliopoulos to create a new body of work – called CHTHONIC on view at Les Ateliers Courbet – exploring his Greek cultural heritage.

Speliopoulos, who divides his time between New York City and Hudson Valley, brings the same powerful, textural treatment to the ceramic vessels that he did to his fashion. Since the early 1980s, the designer and multidisciplinary artist added his creative vision to several fashion houses, including Laura Biagiotti in Rome and Christian Dior in Paris, and, in New York, Carolyne Roehm, a former CFDA President, Joseph Abboud, and Donna Karan New York, where he served as Creative Director from 2002 to 2015.

We spoke with Peter about his new work, what he’s been up to, and what’s next.

Hi Peter, it is so good to connect. Tell me a bit about what you have been up to these past couple of years?

Hello Marc! It has been a while! So nice to be in touch!

The last couple of years have really been about ceramics – studying, experimenting, making! Although I did in fact launch a collection of home objects in 2019 — that I design and that are handcrafted in Umbria, Italy. Because I was already seriously pursuing ceramics, I felt there was a natural connection to home decor, and so I created “tabletop” and objects all in leather, and pillows and throws in suede and shearling, all in skins which relates to ceramics – like the “sensual skin of the pot…” I have always adored fabrics, surfaces, textures, and so it was natural for me to take that tactile sensibility into my ceramics.

I had my first solo exhibition at Les Ateliers Courbet in September of 2019, which was called “Archaeos.” It was about vessels, forms based in antiquity, very kind of primitive/modern, with cracked and glazed surfaces that felt eroded, as if they had been excavated from land and sea. They were all hand thrown and enhanced by finger marks and movement which for me conveys a soul and the passing of time.

Then, at the onset of the Covid pandemic, I moved upstate to the Hudson Valley and set up a small studio in the cellar of my old stone house. I had already been thinking about the primordial gods of Greek Mythology, their abstract elementalism and darkness, and their creation, born from Chaos. There were so many parallels to the emotions we were feeling during the isolation, crisis, and instability. So I got to work, and really focused on making new pieces, which became more like sculptures. All of the pieces in my new show “CHTHONIC” were made upstate during the pandemic. Eventually, I saw the experience as one of rebirth and emergence, and I believe the pieces portray darkness and light, optimism, ascendancy…

* Congratulations on CHTHONIC. What does the title of work mean?

Thanks! Chthonic, which is a somewhat obscure English word, is derived from the Ancient Greek word “kthonios,” which means beneath the earth, subterranean — but also refers to the underworld. It conveys deep darkness and night. In analytical psychology, chthonic refers to the spirit of nature within the unconscious earthly impulses of the self.

What inspired this work, and how did your Greek heritage play into it?

There are primordial gods who are also chthonic deities and I imagined them as they are elemental, and they speak to the creation of the world— Gaia, the firstborn goddess of Earth, Tartarus, god of the stormy pit that is the Underworld, Erebus, god of the mists of darkness, Nyx, goddess of Night. They are abstract and formless so to speak…they are the rulers of the souls. Chthonic deities are also very linked to agriculture, the seasons, fertility. Relating to the my “CHTHONIC” works, I wanted to take the skin off the pot into three-dimensional sculpture, to conjure new souls from clay— so I made abstract appendages that one can imagine as wings or vegetation or simply gestures, or as serpents or snakes, snakes being primordial creatures that mythically inhabit the underworld from which new life emerges. They are everywhere in the ancient world of all the early cultures, symbolizing renewal and immortality. I created abstract mythological creatures, accessing the terrible and sublime spirit of the primordial gods.

My Greek heritage is important to me. I believe in the importance of recognizing our ancestors, and I feel in myself a deep connection to the Ancient Greek world – and clearly, as a ceramic artist, to the earth, and archaeology. Thinking back, I see how it has informed so many of my passions, and my choices. Although American-born, I grew up with many of the Greek traditions, religion, folk songs and dances, language…Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have been intensely studying the Greek language with an amazing teacher via Zoom! Although I had to go to Greek school as a child, I had lost my grasp of the language…but have now awakened a passion for etymology! My Covid period has been one of immersion in the Greek world!

How did your experience as a designer, especially your years working closely with Donna Karan, inform your aesthetic?

I have had a very privileged career, working at a time of enormous opportunity, here and in Italy and Paris— mentored by great talents and through incredible experiences, lots of travel, and research.  My experiences as a designer taught me about “making”— I worked in the best knitwear factories, with the best fabric mills, in shoe and handbag factories, with great Indian embroidery houses, and with the old school drapers and tailors…[I was given] the opportunity to observe the techniques of couture. I am very curious by nature, and it was always important to me to learn as much as possible! I think I put all of this to great use working with Donna Karan, because honestly, very few designers have such a huge talent as Donna, who is also a natural talent. Because her instincts are so sharp and her experience so vast, it was a daily challenge to make things new, fresh, modern, interesting— from aspects like fit and proportion to color to fabric. I am forever grateful to have been given the opportunity to make great contributions, the result of perpetual movement forward. Donna has always been about modern expressions of movement, honoring the female form, functionality and elegance in the fast world. I imagine that intense exposure over 20 years rubbed off on me. Although we are at times symbiotic, we are each unique and quite different!

When and how did you discover ceramics? What do you feel when you create?

Because I am Capricorn and all earth and fire, ceramics seemed like a natural pursuit. And Greece has such an obvious rich ceramic tradition. So, in 2011, I started studying the wheel with a local potter during my summer vacations in Patmos, Greece, where I have a house. It wasn’t until Donna Karan [Collection] was closed in 2015 that I began more formal studies in New York.

I love the potter’s wheel, the feeling of centering and focus, the essential, eternal motion of the wheel itself. What I have learned and enjoyed is the satisfaction that results from making something totally myself. In ceramics, one works alone, and the finished piece is created by one’s own hands, and each choice one makes along the way to completion affects the ultimate work. In fashion, there is teamwork, the final piece is the result of collaborative efforts. I do believe my fashion design history has influenced my ceramics, both in the aesthetics of the pieces and the idea of the “collection…” When I was making these pieces, I often sensed I was sculpting with muslin or felt, [and] trying to achieve the suspension of clay as a “fabric.”

What do you hope people will feel and take away from CHTHONIC?

I like to believe it is all about personal emotion and connections to one’s inner self. So I hope people feel these vessels are alive, expressive, and convey secret histories. They are raw and refined, and lost in time. Although they are at times animalistic and haunting, I also see them as optimistic totems offering a vision of hope and rebirth.

Many of your industry friends showed their support and love for you at the opening, ie. Donna Karan, Patti Cohen, Bridget Foley, Etta Froio…what did you feel that night?

It was truly beautiful, I was jubilant! To see Etta after so many years was very moving. We met when I was designing with Carolyne Roehm, who was also at the opening. I felt tremendous respect for her, and her important contributions to fashion history, which of course I also feel about Bridget, and you as well quite frankly… I think it reminds me of what we all have shared and accomplished in the glory days of fashion— and it was fun!!! Donna and Patti are always like combustion and they ignite enthusiasm and wild energy! We are forever friends bonded by experiences. It was also a confirmation that we all move on and continue to find ways of making contributions.

Do you still design fashion? If not, what do you miss about it? What’s next for you?

Although I have not done “fashion consultancies” recently, I continue creating costumes for opera and dance with Karole Armitage, with whom I have collaborated for 21 years, and with Luca Veggetti, the Italian director/choreographer. Due to Covid, our projects in Tokyo and in Italy in 2021/22 have been delayed.

I truly love fashion; I love clothes too! What I really miss are the people, the collaborations, the dramas, the hysterics, the incredible beauty, the hair and makeup and the show! The total vision… That feeling of when it all comes together. And then— okay it’s finished, what’s next, onto the next! I actually did feel that after the opening of “CHTHONIC.”