Houston-based artist Kevin Peterson creates hyper-realistic paintings that nevertheless seem dream-like, indeed just one of the many juxtapositions that his work grapples with such as bondage versus freedom, support versus restraint and resignation versus persistence. Overtly symbolic, his work combines a dystopian sensibility, distilled in the desolate urban landscapes that he graphically depicts, with the peaceful composure of his young protagonists, usually a small girl followed or accompanied by wild animals. Despite their predatory nature, the aggressiveness of the grizzly bears, wolves, foxes and hyenas that Kevin paints has been effaced to be replaced by obedience and resoluteness.
