Peter Lang Short Bio
Pigneto, Rome. Photo S L
Peter Thomas Lang Bio, Spring 2026.
I am an independent artist, critic, educator and curator. I earned a PhD in urban studies and Italian history from New York University and a B. Arch from Syracuse University. Formerly I held the position of Professor at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm where I taught post-graduate courses from 2013 to 2019. In Stockholm I founded R-lab, a public platform for critical research and creative artistic practice. Currently I am an instructor at NABA Roma in the Design Department. I also write regular essays and produce podcasts for Substack under “The Sum Total Newsletter,” a travelogue through contemporary visual culture.
I curated “Lo Sguardo di Dante/The Mimetic Observer: A visual reading on Dante’s Divine Comedy,” an exhibition on Dante’s understanding of light and the optical sciences- interpreted as a precursor to early photography. The exhibition is on view at the Palazzo Barberini in Rome (15/11/23-03/03/24). The catalogue was produced by the Italian National archive for photography, (ICCD) and funded by the Dante Alighieri National Committee for the 700th year celebration of the Poet’s death.
I work on a number of topics surveying Italian art, architecture and design, with his most recent studies focusing on post-war Radical education and the Florentine schools S-Space and Global Tools. I co-curated and co-authored an exhibition on the exhibition at the New York MoMA: “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape” held in 1972; I also worked closely on the sixties Radical Design groups in Florence, Superstudio, Archizoom, 9999 and UFO. I contributed a significant essay on the Florentine art and architecture critic Lara-Vinca Masini (1923-2021) introducing her work to a broader English audience.
I currently live with my family in Rome, Italy..
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