WHERE: Dahl Arts Center in the Senator Stan Adelstein + Lynda K. Clark Gallery
WHEN: Opens Friday, January 24, 2014 with an artist’s reception from 5:00-7:00 pm.
In Denial of Context: Landscapes and Other Ephemera, an Exhibit by Artist Paul Peterson
BRIEF ABOUT: Growing up on a farm, Peterson (www.paulpetersonart.com) thinks deeply about the rural economy of South Dakota, where he gained insight into the challenges faced by those who till the land. The difficult task that has always been a part of agriculture, drawing life from the soil, but also the 21st century pressures, including competition in a global economy as well as adapting to new techniques and technology.
Peterson situates his work at the intersections of these various tasks in his artwork by capturing the contrast between big agriculture and the small family farm. He places side by side, a past literally rooted in the earth, with a future filled with ever more complicated machines, and traces the conflict that comes with working a land that gives but can also take.
His approach in abstract to these subjects sometimes varies, from landscapes to more personal, however ultimately, through series like his “Two Barns for the Hofer Brothers”, which tells the history of South Dakota’s “Little Civil War”, Peterson situates his work firmly in the land of South Dakota, what it once was, what it is, and what it may eventually become.