Cleon Peterson
Cleon Peterson
A Conversation With Cleon Peterson | Episode 106 #cleonpeterson | Elliott Earls
He recently dived into the world of NFTs and has released two NFT collections on Nifty Gateway, "World On Fire" and "So It Goes".[4]
Early Life
He was asthmatic during his childhood, and while being hospitalized, he took up drawing to pass time.[5]
"I paint a reality that not everybody has gone through, but it exist and is out there.
There is a sort of primary life that goes with misery, that is what I try to approach in my paintings."
Education
Undated photograph of Cleon
In 2004, he received a Bachelor’s degree in Graphics Design from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA. In 2006, he got his Master’s degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art. [5]
Career
Cleon is a professional painter, he is known for his bold, stylized paintings and prints which depict a world of brute, and authoritarian violence.[4]
He draws on fine-art influences such as Leon Golub and Paul McCarthy, as well as the aesthetics of Greek pottery, graphic design, and political propaganda posters.[4]
He works with a spare color palette, often limiting himself to black, white, red, and yellow.[4]
His work has fetched five-figure prices on the secondary market.
By explicitly depicting acts of violence, Peterson hopes to highlight the overreach of authoritarian power in contemporary society.[3]
“A psychiatrist once bought one of my paintings, and he said I must be mad at my mother (laughs).
Maybe, I don’t know.
I’d say that part of what I’m painting are things that I feel like I’ve experienced – when I was at the low points in my life; when I was living on the streets, and a junkie…”
Cleon is also a graphic designer known in the world of skateboarding.
In 1998, he joined the Californian group of assistants of Shepard Fairey.[5]
In 2004, he did a 50-meter fresco at the Palais de Tokyo. In 2009, he did his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. [5]
NFTs and Digital Art
Big Man, Small Man
Cleon recently dived into the world of NFTs, his first NFT collection, "World On Fire," was released in 2021.
The collection has 50 editions, and editions #49 and #50 from each drawing have been reserved by the artist.[5]
The collection explores a world in crisis driven by man's hand.
A cautionary tale where our utopian aspirations of power and technological progress have led us to the brink of extinction.
Leading us to ask the simple question; "As a human race are we working together towards destruction or redemption."[5]
Cleon plans to explore NFTs as the new medium in the future, and provide access to exclusive, or more limited runs of his future NFT works.[1]
He released his second NFT collection “So It Goes” on February 7, 2022.
“So It Goes” was created to reward his past collectors.
This means to bid on Eclipse (Black), one must own at least one of Peterson’s NFTs, while Eclipse (Red) requires owning all three (3) of his NFTs.
[5] One of the pieces from the collection, It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn – Eternal, was sold for $8,000 at Nifty Gateway.[27]
Artworks
Hysteria
Hysteria makes up something of a departure for Peterson, who is widely recognized for his depictions of monstrous, brutish authoritarian figures dispensing cruelty and violence on one another.
The new work in Hysteria shows the changes that have happened both in Peterson’s thinking over the recent turbulent months and also the nation at large.
He moved beyond the formal and conceptual binaries of his earlier work to create pictures that embody the confusion, anger, repulsion and horror in our present moment.[3]
“I feel like we’re living in a new medieval period,” Peterson says.
“We have a plague, and folklore and mythology are influencing us more than rational thought.”
Endless Sleep
This artwork was displayed during the 2016 edition of Nuit Blanche, the nocturnal art trail through Paris, Cleon Peterson painted a monumental five hundred square meter work of art beneath the Eiffel Tower, one of the world's most visited monuments.[3]
While passers-by on the ground floor would only observe an intriguing jumble of lines and abstract shapes, the work revealed itself splendidly to spectators from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, to which for the occasion, admission was free.[3]
The fresco, titled 'Endless Sleep', is an epic depicting the turbulent reunion of Poli Philo with Polia.
Surrounded by dancing nymphs, the protagonists are figures from the Italian novel Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499), one of the most curious books ever published, and also the overarching theme of this edition of Nuit Blanche.[4]
Other artworks include The Judgement, Purity, Poison, End of Days, Victory, The Shadow of Men, Blood and Soil, Stare into the Sun and many more.[3]
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
2020
‘Hysteria’ at OTI Gallery, Los Angeles
‘Rose Béton Biennale' at Musée des Abattoirs, France
2019
‘Stare Into The Sun’ at Pilevneli, Istanbul
2018
‘Blood & Soil’ at OTI Gallery, Los Angeles
‘The Shadow of Men’ at Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver
2017
‘Victory’ at Galerie Du Jour, Paris
2016
'The Judgement' at Plus One, Antwerp.
'Purity' at OTI Gallery, Hong Kong.
2015
‘Poison’ at Library Street Collective, Detroit
2014
'End of Days' at New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles
Group Exhibitions and Projects
2017
The Maxi Edmond De Rothschild, Gitana, France
‘Lock Route' at Gillman Barracks, Singapore
2016
Eiffel Tower, Nuit Blanche, ParisWarehouse 421, Abu Dhabi
2014
Lasco Project at Palais de Tokyo, Paris
2011
Postermat The Hole, New YorkPure Logo at New Image Art, Los Angeles
Public Domaine at La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris
2010
Come As You Are at Prism Gallery, Los Angeles
The Power of Selection at Part 3, Western Exhibitions, Chicago
2009
14 Artists at New Image Art, Los Angeles
Trailblazers at Boutwell Draper Gallery, SydneyGinger at New Image Art, Los Angeles
2007
Art Basel at Deitch Projects, Miami BeachMail Order Monsters at Deitch Projects, New York
Brodeo at New Image Art, Los Angeles
Bibliography
Rose Béton Biennale Catalogue, Musée des Abattoirs, 2020
Palais 24, Le Magazine de Palais de Tokyo, 2016
The Judgement, Exhibition catalogue, Plus One Gallery, 2015
'Cleon Peterson', series mono-petit, Draw Down, 2015