Lamar Peterson

Lamar Peterson (born 1974 in St. Petersburg, Florida) received his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2001. For over 15 years, Peterson has painted a wide range of subjects from cartoon landscapes populated by African American suburbanites ...

Lamar Peterson (born 1974 in St. Petersburg, Florida) received his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2001. For over 15 years, Peterson has painted a wide range of subjects from cartoon landscapes populated by African American suburbanites to surreal portraits of Michael Jackson. The artist has collaged tatters into representations of faces and employed colorful party streamers as framing devices. Within all his various constructions, Peterson continually evokes a transformation or disfiguration as he depicts young African American men and women in our contemporary moment in time. His quasi-abstract figure and simplified forms are pared down to raw emotion suggesting elements of strength, violence, and vulnerability.