At first glance, Kevin Peterson’s paintings can feel like scenes pulled from a post-apocalyptic film or video game. Crumbling factories, abandoned buildings, graffiti-covered walls, and overgrown industrial landscapes stretch across the canvas, while children move quietly through them alongside bears, wolves, foxes, birds, and other wild animals. The settings are bleak, yet the figures at their center introduce something different: innocence, companionship, and a strange sense that life continues despite everything around them.
Born in Elko, Nevada, in 1979, Peterson spent parts of his childhood in Nevada, Michigan, and Washington before moving to Texas in 1996. He studied both art and psychology at Austin College in Sherman, graduating with degrees in Fine Art and Psychology in 2001. Afterward, he worked as a probation officer in Austin for several years. During a difficult period involving alcohol and illegal substance use, Peterson entered rehabilitation, where he rediscovered his interest in making art and eventually decided to pursue it professionally. Today, he lives in Houston and works out of Winter Street Studios. His work has attracted attention well beyond gallery walls. In 2015, he received the Hunting Art Prize for his painting “Fire,” and his work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. One of his best-known paintings, “Coalition II,” also reached a very different audience when it was used as the cover artwork for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2016 album The Getaway.
Scroll down to check out some of Kevin Peterson’s striking paintings, and let us know which left the strongest impression on you.
