Posted by
Abhilasha Singh
on
3/12/14
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New Image Art Gallery
7920 Santa Monica Blvd. , West Hollywood, CA 90046
February 22, 2014 - April 19, 2014
Violent As F***: Cleon Peterson
For LA-based Cleon Peterson violence and chaos is the name of the game. His paintings depict violent struggles rendered in monochrome. Composition and pattern are key, as the limited palette draws the eye to the placement of figures against background, against each other. The figures are reminiscent of ancient Greek pottery – clashing Titans, wrestlers, gladiators – but more gorey, animalistic, and, ultimately, left without any chance of redemption. You can see his work at New Image Art until April 12th.
In Cleon Peterson’s End of Days, opening February 22nd at New Image Art, Peterson’s world of depravity does not simply crash and burn: it reverses polarity, inherited not by the meek but by the vengeful and merciless. Whatever days have ended, they have been succeeded by a new age of barbarism, with clear winners and losers. The triumphant take no trophies, apart from the occasional severed head, but the defeated have clearly lost more than their viscera – they have lost all semblance of control, dignity, strength and, most of all, hope.
But not all is lost, nor is it over. If that sounds like the good news, well, it’s not. The scenes of brutality are depicted in medias res, after the first blows were struck, in most cases not quite lethally. As the victims live to suffer, their tormenters seem to revel in that persistence. In fact, the tormenters, which Peterson calls the “shadows,” appear to derive their strength from their subversion.
(text source: New Image Art Gallery)
Cleon Peterson, End of Days, 90 x 90”, Acrylic on wood panel, 9 pc; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
More on Cleon Peterson:
Cleon Peterson’s shadowy figures mete out violence in images that could just as well depict justice as they do barbarity. Peterson’s work can be viewed as both a continuation and a progression of past works, in which graphically rendered scenes of sadism portray chaos as the inevitable order of things. Many of those scenes have featured characters with physical appearances largely undifferentiated from one another, suggesting a classless unsympathetic society, yet in this new body of work Peterson incorporates “shadow” figures and a new dichotomous order. There are haves and have-nots, but amid the havoc it’s hard to decide who’s who.
(text source: New Image Art Gallery)
Cleon Peterson, The Practice of Masters, 60” x 60”, Acrylic on 9pc. wood Panel (framed black); Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, Eye for Eye (black), 8.5” x 12”, Acrylic on wood pane; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, Darkness Into Light, 34” X 45”, Acrylic On 4-Wood Panels; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, By the Sword (white), 8.5 x 12”, Acrylic on wood panel; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, Savage, 26.5 x 40”, Acrylic on wood panel, 1 pcs; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, The Return, 24 x 32”, Acrylic on wood panel; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, The Light Bearer, 18 x 24”, Acrylic on wood panel; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, Glory, 150 x 90”, Acrylic on wood panel, 15 pcs; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, Vengeance, 96 x 72”, Acrylic on wood panel, 12 pcs; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, Night Has Come, 16“x 16”, Acrylic on wood panel, 1 pcs; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, The Weak and the Powerful, 24 x 32”, Acrylic on wood panel; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, Eye for Eye (white), 8.5 x 12”, Acrylic on wood panel; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, By the Sword (Black), 8.5 x 12”, Acrylic on wood panel; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
Cleon Peterson, Only After Dark,16” x 16”, Acrylic on wood panel; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery
For further information...(ArtSlant Profile) (Artist's Website) (Gallery)
(Image on top: Cleon Peterson, Disappear Into Midnight, Acrylic on wood panel , 16” x 16”; Courtesy of the Artist and New Image Art Gallery)
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