Cleon Peterson to Launch New "Blood & Soil" Exhibit in LA

Cleon Peterson will unleash a body of new work at an upcoming exhibition called “Blood & Soil” at Over The Influence in Los Angeles, California. Internationally-renowned for his minimalist illustrations and bold graphic style that depict harrowing scenes, Peterson’s new pieces challenge “nationalism, populist fervor, economic disparity, and autocratic consolidation of power in today’s world,” said the gallery in a statement. The artist translates these notions onto acrylic-on-canvas paintings, small bronze sculptures, and one large-scale sculpture.

“Blood & Soil” will launch to the public starting July 7 up until August 5. Head over to Over The Influence’s official website to learn more. For more politically-charged art, check out Robert Longo’s Death Star sculpture made of 40,000 bullet casings to raise awareness on American gun violence.

Over The Influence
833 E 3rd St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013

If you’re in LA Sat, July 7 please join us at the opening of my new solo exhibition. CLEON PETERSON: BLOOD & SOIL Opening Reception July 7, 2018 from 6-9PM OVER THE INFLUENCE 833 East 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90013 Over The Influence is pleased to present Blood & Soil, an exhibition of new works by internationally renowned Los Angeles-based artist Cleon Peterson. The exhibition features new acrylic-on-canvas paintings, small bronze sculptures, and one large-scale sculpture. A fearless artist, Peterson, in this new body of work intends to reconcile our violent history with present day violence prevalent across the country. A celebrated painter of the distressing anxiety and sinister violence in contemporary society, Peterson’s bold black, white, and arresting bright red palette ominously complements the savage cruelty he portrays. Harkening the ghosts of past evil, Peterson’s works recall the horror in Goya’s ‘The Third of May 1808’. The resulting paintings are brutal in their depictions of violence which also bring contemporary atrocities to mind. Peterson’s malevolent graphically rendered tableaux are striking and vivid representations in which baleful authoritarian not quite human figures wield weapons, namely nightsticks and guns—paintings of savage, merciless scenes in which powerful men suppress the subjugated through bloodthirsty physical violence. This series acts as a warning against and a timely critique of nationalism, populist fervor, economic disparityand autocratic consolidation of power in today’s world. Peterson describes the anarchic chaos depicted in his work as ‘a gray world where lawbreakers and law enforcers are one in the same; a world where ethics have been abandoned in favor of personal entitlement’ forcing us to question what we know what we see and what side are we on? With his skillful, strange, and unforgettable large figurative tableaux, Peterson forcefully translates the consciousness of carnage and chaos, issuing a powerful indictment against universal violence, past and present. His nightmarish vignettes demand examination; in his works, violence is a nightmare from which we have not awakened. image: Absolute Power

A post shared by Cleon Peterson (@cleonpeterson) on Jun 11, 2018 at 12:34pm PDT

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