77 Natoma (at 2nd)
San Francisco, California

Kevin Peterson sends a love note in Slumbody Loves You at Varnish Fine Art

Kevin Peterson: Slumbody Loves You
June 23 – August 1, 2009
Opening Reception Friday June 26, 7-10pm

Kevin Peterson’s Slumbody Loves You solo exhibit of oil paintings documents the importance of an American neighborhood community. Peterson shares his love of the neighborhood characters, their interwoven lives and their eventual destruction through gentrification and corporatization. The artist casts a spotlight on the individuals that comprise his and countless other small, lower income urban neighborhoods across the U.S. with his trademark dreamscape surrealist style.

“I would say more than anything, I paint what I love and I love what I paint,” says Kevin Peterson. Using a glaze technique, he carefully builds up layers of paint, allowing light to pass through and bounce back to the surface to give each piece its own “glow”. This process of layering allows for an exploration of ideas and imagery that evolve on the canvas, becoming a window into the subconscious mind of the artist. In his most recent series of works, Slumbody Loves You, Peterson veers towards narrative, documenting the landscape and characters of his tight-knit urban neighborhood as they fight encroaching development and the inevitable gentrification and loss of culture that comes with it. When crafting his paintings, Peterson takes a cue from the Flemish Masters who he says “knew how to tell a story without shoving it down your throat.” The paintings that comprise Slumbody Loves You are allegorical in nature and take careful consideration to untangle which, given the dreamy and seductive atmosphere of the works, is a pleasure to do.

Kevin Peterson is an oil painter in his 20’s who works from his home in a San Diego neighborhood. He has shown extensively in the United States in solo and group exhibits. Slumbody Loves You is Varnish Fine Art’s first solo exhibit of Kevin Peterson’s artwork.

*Varnish is a 21+ only venue. Sorry, no babies or children, either.

Added by varnish on June 17, 2009

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