Participating Artists in “Inspirations” Exhibition at the John F. Peto Studio Museum

ÀNI Art Academies will be showing artwork at the John F. Peto Studio Museum for our “Inspirations: A Global Cascade of Influence” exhibition. Inspirations celebrates how influence travels: how the spark of one artist’s vision can cross time, place, and culture to ignite others. Each participating ÀNI artist presents a work that honors an individual, idea, or tradition that has shaped their creative voice. Collectively, these pieces form a portrait of inspiration itself, an ever-expanding network of creative inheritance and renewal.

Interactive QR code components will accompany selected works, inviting visitors to explore the sources, stories, and artistic lineages behind each piece. These digital connections turn viewing into conversation, linking the intimate gestures of the studio with the global circulation of ideas.

The exhibition opens on April 19th and runs through August 30th, 2026. 

The John F. Peto Studio Museum is located at 102 Cedar Ave, Island Heights, NJ. This was the former home and studio of John F. Peto, and the museum is dedicated to preserving the artist’s legacy and celebrating the history of his life and work. Peto was a world renown trompe l’oeil artist whose work inspired many great painters, including several associated with ÀNI, including ÀNI Co-Founder and Curriculum Designer Anthony J. Waichulis.

Waichulis first encountered John F. Peto’s Old Souvenirs, a masterfully crafted and meditative still life housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the late 1990s. The quiet poetry and demonstrable virtuosity he found with that painting profoundly influenced his own creative path and, in time, inspired his development of an educational framework that would empower a new generation of artists to pursue their own inspirations. This cascade of influence demonstrates how what moves one artist deeply can, in turn, set countless others in motion.

This exhibition traces that ripple effect from Peto’s studio in nineteenth-century New Jersey to new generations of painters and draftsmen working today in the United States, the Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Anguilla.

The following apprentices, alumni, and staff members have been selected to have their artwork as part of the show:

Anthony Waichulis
Tharusha Dilshan
Kelvin Lugo Belen
Mashi Kulupana
Barbara Fox
Pasindu C. R. Koralage
John Berlyn Fernandez
Bonnie Evans
Shameen Pawanal
Brian O’Neill
Udari Rashmi
Karla Rebolledo Moset
H.K. Praneeth Maleesha
H.U. Nuwarapaksha-Gedara
Dismal Vidhana Pathiranage
Yesica Marc
Nirosha Thondilage
M. Dilshan
Terese Rogers
Lahiru A.W. Arachchige
Francisco Collado
Juana Collado
Garret McCall
Michael Carson
Jinadari K. Bandara
Domingo Antonio Rosari
Fraelo Lantigua Garcia
A.S. Haseena
Dilshan Alwis
Nimeshika Wilegodage