The Curator's Eye: Peabody Waldorf

P. Eric Waldmann is a collector in the broadest sense of the word.

In order to refurbish Peabody Waldorf, the gallery space he opened inside the Sanford and Son antique mall earlier this year, Waldmann and his entourage used pilings they had caught and pulled out of the ocean near Olympia more than a year ago for one of the walls. Another wall, Waldmann explains, is made up of “puzzled-together” scraps of wood from job sites. 

The gallery’s name is something of a puzzle as well. A few summers ago, when Waldmann fought forest fires west of the Mississippi for seventy-two days straight, the Tacoma artist’s crew members couldn’t guess what the “P” in his name stood for, so they just started calling him “Peabody.” Another crew replaced his surname with “Waldorf,” after the luxury hotel in New York. From this collection of nicknames came the name for his Tacoma gallery, where he shows his own work and that of other artists. “It sounds like a classy joint,” explains Waldmann. “And it is, I like to think. But it doesn’t have to be.”

A contractor specializing in sustainable remodels, Waldmann loves traveling the world to work on building projects that use reclaimed and restored materials. Locally, he and his team are refurbishing the stage at Urban Grace Church in downtown Tacoma, a job that is scheduled to be finished this month.

FOCAL POINTS

Artist’s hometown:
Morristown, NJ

Holds degree from:
University of South Australia

Landed first gig as a carpenter at age: 12

Peabody Waldorf’s Facebook slogan: “We are attempting to blow your mind, Tacoma. You want this, trust me ... ”

Artist heroes: Henri Toulouse-Lautrec; Alphonse Mucha; to a lesser degree, Andy Warhol

Other gigs include: Bartending at PGA golf tournaments around the country

Places visited he didn’t want to leave: Chiang Rai and Koh Tao in Thailand, Villa de Leyva, Colombia

To see more: pericwaldmann.com