Cleon Peterson

Shadow of Men

This winter, MCA Denver will dedicate its second floor to the work of Cleon Peterson. The installations will introduce Peterson’s murals, paintings, and sculptures to a new audience and will transform the museum inside and out.

Cleon Peterson: Shadow of Men gives visual expression to the artist’s own troubled past. Much of the work is borne of Peterson’s wrestling with such personal struggles as his dysfunctional family, a history of addiction, and his multiple experiences in the penal system. Stark black and white figures appear entangled and attenuated, with their bodies caught in moments of rage, violence, and mercy. The contrast of light and shadow, however, suggests a metaphor of two sides within each person: The shadow that perpetuates violence can be seen as an expression of one’s darkest, most repressed behaviors. As difficult as it might be, this visual representation of violence calls out a disturbing though fundamental element of society, something the critic Walter Benjamin noted when he wrote: “Every document of civilization is at the same time a record of barbarism.” The exhibition squarely addresses the nature of violence at a time when this subject seems increasingly uncomfortable, yet urgent.

Cleon Peterson was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1973. He earned a BFA at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and an MFA at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. His work has been shown at institutions in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York, as well as in Australia, Hong Kong, London, Paris, and Singapore. He lives and works in Los Angeles