Dressed to Thrill: John Petrey transforms recycled tin and bottle caps into haute couture
John Petrey, Laura, 2024. Layered lacquer paint on aluminum, lacquer paint on bottle caps. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery 1401. © John Petrey.
AUGUSTA, GA.—
Dressed to Thrill: Sculpture by John Petrey, which includes fourteen tabletop and life-size dress-inspired sculptures, opens on the night of the thirty-third annual Morris Museum of Art Gala on Friday, March 6, 2026. The exhibition remains on display through August 30, 2026.
“No exhibition was ever more aptly named. What John Petrey has done with recycled materials is literally thrilling. It’s also wildly imaginative, creative, and engaging. There’s nothing quite like it,” said Kevin Grogan, director of the Morris Museum of Art.
For more than two decades, artist John Petrey has created dynamic sculptures from everyday materials and objects—tin, bottle caps, aluminum cans, plastic forks, yardsticks, and the like.
This current exhibition includes life-size and tabletop sculptures selected from Petrey’s renowned Dress Series, in which he has transformed rigid materials into fluid, garment-inspired pieces, reimagining mid-century style by blending 1950s and 1960s fashion with contemporary craftsmanship.
Petrey’s sculptures are held in many prominent private, public, and corporate collections around the world, including a private collection in Saint Tropez, France, the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Johann Doppelhofer in Austria, the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville, the Mount Dora Center for the Arts in Mount Dora, Florida; the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, Florida; the Lauren Rogers Museum in Laurel, Mississippi; and the Morris Museum of Art, among others.
His work is currently represented by A Gallery Fine Art, Palm Desert, California; AiBo Gallery, Purchase, New York; Dominique Boisjoli Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Gallery 1401, Chattanooga, Tennessee; The WIT Gallery, Lenox, Massachusetts; and Xanadu Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona.
