Balance of Power II (Black), 2025

Cleon Peterson   Emerging artists

Cleon Peterson was born in 1973 in Seattle. He grew up in a bohemian familiar environment, encouraging creation. Since he was asthmatic during his childhood, he liked drawing during his numerous hospitalizations. Later on, when he lived in New York, he became a drug addict, was in jail and in psychiatric hospitals a few times. It is from this experience that Cleon Peterson draws his inspiration today.

Urban violence, the ghettos and the tension that prevails in a certain environment are all part of his work. "I paint a reality that not everybody has gone through, but it exist and is out there". There is a sort of primary life that goes with misery, that is what I try to approach in my paintings", says Cleon Peterson, without any kind of moral jugement.

In parallel to his activity as a painter, Cleon Peterson is graphic designer known in the world of skateboarding. In 1998, he joined the Californian group of assistants of Shepard Fairey.

In 2009, he did his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles and continued doing similar projects since then. In 2004, he did a 50-meter fresco at the Palais de Tokyo.