Peter Alexander was born in Los Angeles in 1939. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania (1957-60); the Architectural Association in London, England (1960-62); the University of California, Berkeley (1962-1963); the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1963-64); and the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his B.A. (1964-65) and M.F.A. (1965-66) degrees.
Rising to prominence in the 1960s with translucent resin sculptures, Alexander has since become widely admired for his paintings, including a series that depicts luminous aerial views of the city lights stretching across the Los Angeles basin. He also was commissioned to paint a large mural for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.
Alexander has held dozens of exhibitions internationally, and his work was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Orange County Museum of Art in 1999. He is represented in many public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Norton Simon Museum, and the Getty Museum.
(Excerpt from the Visual Arts & Media Studies Division Newsletter, December 11, 2006)