Jon Peterson (artist)

Jon Peterson
Jon and Tanarat Peterson, Venice, 2015
Born	Stillwater, MN
Nationality	American
Education	University of Minnesota;Otis Art Institute Engineering and Art
Known for	Participatory Art, Sculpture, Painting
Awards	National Endowment of the Arts
Website	www.jonpetersonart.com

Los Angeles-based artist Jon Peterson (born 1945, Stillwater, MN) earned a B.S. in aeronautical engineering in 1968 from the University of Minnesota before earning an MFA at Otis Art Institute in 1976. Following his move downtown in 1976, he participated in Los Angeles’ thriving downtown art scene, as captured by Steven Seemayer’s film Young Turks, the Movie -Interview with Jon Peterson, 1982^[1] Peterson is best known for his bum (bad) shelters, which prompted critics to coin terms like art-at-large, participatory art, guerilla sculpture and guerilla architecture, as they were sited outdoors in the urban landscape, so as to attract hobos and homeless alike. In 1980, Peterson was awarded $10,000 from the National Endowment of the Arts. In 1983, Robert Mapplethorpe photographed body builder Lisa Lyon on the roof of his penthouse studio at the Continental Building.

Like that era’s “site constructions,”^[2] Peterson’s bum (bad) shelters blended architecture and landscape, further expanding sculpture into the realm of practical art, which Carrie Rickey recognized as dangerous territory in 1980.^[3] Peter Plagens noted, “Practicality—actually, survival—obviously trumped aesthetics in the demimonde of the downtown homeless. Almost immediately someone yanked the sculpture out of its hole, laid it flat on the ground, and slept in it.” ^[4] Envisioning a future where artists remade our world, Constance Mallinson responded thus to his art in 1980: “In an over-populated, polluted, resource-depleted world, the visionary power of artists in environmental engineering, urban planning, industrial designing, sociology and behavioral psychology could help solve persistent social dilemmas.”^[5]

Soon after graduate school, he had solo exhibitions with Los Angeles gallery Newspace (1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979), Washington, DC gallery Protech-McIntosh (1980), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (1985), and his work was included in group shows at Laguna Art Museum (1976), San Diego Museum of Art (1980), Washington Project for the Arts (1981), Cal State Fullerton Gallery (1981) and Foundation for Art Resources (1982).

Wall Paintings and Sculpture (1975-1979)

Before exhibiting in the streets, Peterson exhibited paper paintings (1976) and wall drawings (1978) at Newspace in Los Angeles. Peterson’s 1977 sculpture show at Newspace featured brightly-colored, geometric, cage-like structures alluding to those absent bodies that would later occupy his bum (bad) shelters. Inspired by neighboring artists’ anonymous interventions in the street, as well as skid row's homeless occupants, he constructed Masonite and Fiberglass single-body shelters in his studio, which he inserted amidst downtown’s craggy terrain. In 1979, he exhibited photomontages documenting each shelter's installation, occupation and use, in editions of 10, so as to finance their demand.

Bum (Bad) Shelters (1979-1983)

Between 1979 and 1983, he was commissioned by the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (1980), Washington Project for the Arts (1981), Madison Art Center (1981), Houston Art Festival (1983) and Foundation for Art Resources (1983) to insert bum (bad) shelters in Santa Barbara, California, Washington, D.C., Madison, Wisconsin, Houston, and Los Angeles, respectively. In 1980, he inserted three shelters into the landscape of downtown New York City, inspiring then Village Voice art critic Carrie Rickey to write a full-page article on how to look at his shelters. She remarked how Peterson's work gave something back, while other artists merely appropriated downtown suffering. Bum (bad Shelter), 1982

Los Angeles Shelter number two, downtown Los Angeles, 1979

In 1980, Peter Clothier observed: “Provided that he was prepared to allow his work this liberty, at large in the community, the artist could continue to work in the traditions of his artistic heritage, while at the same time make his ‘offering’ to a public that would otherwise have spurned the work as irrelevant to their world”^[6] Richard Ross (photographer) remarked, “Peterson offers these people physical security in exchange for making a basically closed society more public.”^[7] His bum (bad) shelters anticipated Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Homeless Vehicle Project (1987-1989) and Michael Rakowitz’s ParaSITE homeless shelter(1997). Regarding their longevity, Constance Mallinson recalls, “Aside from photo documentation, the shelters had a lifespan dictated entirely by the ecology of the street — with no attempts at upkeep or replacement — their impermanence underscoring the fragility of life and dystopian dimensions of modern cities.”^[8]

Paintings

Peterson's painting series are inspired by imagery encountered outside of his studio. His shadow paintings are based on his memory of J. M. W. Turner paintings following a 1989 trip to London. Later paintings have found inspiration from vulnerable landscapes (2008-2014), found paintings(2008-2014), media coverage of the Arab Spring (2010), and a portfolio of drawings by Phyllis T, which he purchased in 2011 at the Pasadena City College flea market.

References