About the artwork
Repeated in a cyclical fashion, Cleon Peterson offers us a freeze-frame of a murder. Drawing inspiration from his tumultuous life in New York in the 1990s, he depicts, as usual, urban squalor and ultra-violence. Having been addicted to heroin and confronted with isolation, prison and psychiatric hospitals, he depicts these situations of distress that drive individuals towards extreme acts such as theft, violence and self-destruction. The work's "flat" aesthetic, inherited from ancient Greek vases and the works of Matisse, is updated by the artist's underground culture and personal history.
Expert opinion
With a subject steeped in violence and a "flat" aesthetic, this work is characteristic of Cleon Peterson's practice.
About the artist
Born in Seattle in 1973, Cleon Peterson lives and works in Los Angeles. Brought up in an environment conducive to artistic creation, his work is notably nourished by his experiences on the streets of New York in the 1990s, where he fell into drug addiction, alternating between prison and a psychiatric hospital. In his work, he depicts urban tensions and violence, disorder and bloody impulses, free from morality and justice. Through his "flat" aesthetic, the artist invokes the influence of ancient Greek vases and the creations of Matisse. He modernizes these references by fusing them with his mastery of graphic design and his familiarity with underground cultures. First recognized for his illustrative work in the skateboarding world, Cleon Peterson joined Shepard Fairey's Californian team in 1998. Since then, he has held solo exhibitions, the first of which took place in Los Angeles. In 2014, he created a monumental fresco at the Palais de Tokyo, followed in 2016 by a 700 m2 painting on the forecourt of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
“In my painting, I try to combat the dualism that divides the world into good and evil, madness and reason, law and criminals. I paint a reality that's out there, that not everyone has experienced.”
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