Jon Peterson (artist)

Jon Peterson
Jon and Tanarat Peterson, Venice, 2015
Born1945
Stillwater, Minnesota, US
DiedMarch 4, 2020
EducationOtis Art Institute, University of Minnesota
Known forParticipatory Art, sculpture, painting
AwardsNational Endowment for the Arts
WebsiteJon Peterson

Jon Peterson (1945–2020) was an American artist, most known for his "guerrilla sculpture" in the 1980s and his stylistically eclectic paintings in the 2000s.[1][2][3] He was active in the emergence of Los Angeles’s downtown art scene—partly captured in the 1982 documentary, Young Turks—as both an artist and real estate developer.[4][5][6] His work has been commissioned by or exhibited at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE),[7] the San Diego Museum of Art, Washington Project for the Arts, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston Art Festival, Foundation for Art Resources, and the International Sculpture Conference.[8][9][10] It has been discussed in Artforum, Art in America,[11] ARTnews,[12] Los Angeles Times,[13] The Washington Post and The Village Voice, and recognized by the National Endowment of the Arts.[14] Museum director and one-time Artforum critic Richard Armstrong wrote that his outdoor, urban "Bum Shelters" "neatly grafted function and relevance onto the sadly barren tree of public sculpture"; critic Peter Plagens called them "hand-made, subtly irregular riff[s] on Minimalism" that injected social consciousness into "erstwhile formalist work."[15][2] Reviewers liken his painting practice in the 2000s to the "polymath"-model of Gerhard Richter, interchanging diverse styles and genres as a means to understanding the nature of painting itself.[16][3] Peterson died March 4, 2020, at the age of 74, and is survived by his wife, Tanarat, and son, Raymond.[10][17]

  1. ^ Richards, Paul. "Bum Wraps," The Washington Post, May 29, 1980. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Plagens, Peter. "Gimme Shelter," Jon Peterson Paintings and Sculpture: A Survey, Pamela Wilson (ed), Los Angeles: LA Artcore, 2013.
  3. ^ a b Centeno, Jimmy. "on Peterson: 12 Years of Painting and More to Come," Fabrik, February 28, 2018. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  4. ^ Young Turks. "Who Are the Young Turks?". Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  5. ^ Drohojowska, Hunter. "Young Turks," Artforum, February 1982. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  6. ^ Mandel, Jason. "The Loft Pioneers," Los Angeles Downtown News, September 30, 2002, p. 6. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  7. ^ Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. "Site Projects: Downtown L.A.," Exhibition. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  8. ^ Richards, Paul. "The guerillas of art," The Washington Post, March 24, 1981.
  9. ^ McEvilley, Thomas. "The Houston Festival," Artforum, October 1983. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  10. ^ a b Rosamund Felsen Gallery. "Jon Peterson," Artists. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  11. ^ Mallinson, Constance. "Jon Peterson at Newspace," Art in America, January 1980.
  12. ^ Wortz, Melinda. Review, ARTNews, December 1980.
  13. ^ Muchnic, Suzanne. "An L.A. showcase for iconoclasts," Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2006. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  14. ^ Wilson, Pamela (ed). Jon Peterson Paintings and Sculpture: A Survey, Los Angeles: LA Artcore, 2013.
  15. ^ Armstrong, Richard. "Jon Peterson, Newspace," Artforum, January 1980. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  16. ^ Mallinson, Constance. "Encountering the Sublime – The Art of Jon Peterson," Jon Peterson Paintings and Sculpture: A Survey, Pamela Wilson (ed), Los Angeles: LA Artcore, 2013.
  17. ^ Young Turks. "Jon Peterson, 1945–2020: Painter, Sculptor & Arts District Pioneer", News. Retrieved April 23, 2020.