Peter Shire studied ceramics at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles from 1965 to -70. During the mid 1970’s Shire designed teapots and had his first exhibition called Tustin Time at Gallery 17848 in Tustin California.
In 1981 Shire was one of the founding members of the Memphis Milano and until 1987 Shire designed furniture and silver ware for the postmodernistic group, including the multicolored Brazil table (1981), the giant club chair Bel-Air (1982) and the silver Anchorage teapot (1982). For the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in Los in 1984, Shire designed several public artworks. Five years later, he designed a twenty-one-piece furniture and furnishings collection titled Tops for the Design Gallery in Milan.
During the same year Shire also had his first international exhibitions of works in New York, Paris and Milan. In the early 1990’s Shire designed glassware for Seguso Vetri d’Arte in Venice, silverware for Rossi & Arcandi as well as jewellery and a convertible fountain and rollerball pen for Acme Studios. For the Sapporo brewery in Hokkaido, Japan, Shire created a series of sculptures in 1992.
During the 2000’s Shire has been the subject of several major exhibitions, including Peter Shire: The Los Angeles Connection to Memphis at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2006, and Peter Shire: Naked Is The Best Disguise at MOCA Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles in 2017.
In 2013, Shire was the Nadine Carter Russell Endowed Chair, a residency at LSU College of Art + Design in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Peter Shire is represented in museums all over the world including the Vitra Design Museum in Veil am Rhein and the Museum of Furniture Studies in Stockholm.
