Cleon Peterson’s bold, stylized paintings and prints depict a world of brute, authoritarian violence and caustic debauchery. The artist 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. His striking compositions feature characters packed into dense, kinetic scenes of high-contrast conflict. Peterson works with a spare color palette, often limiting himself to black, white, red, and yellow. He received his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art before going on to exhibit in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Paris, San Francisco, and beyond. 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.
