Earning a BFA and studying on two different MFA courses clearly gave Marion Peck a love of the old masters. It’s from this bottomless well of creativity that she has drawn inspiration for Animals: Recent Paintings, on display at Los Angeles’ Michael Kohn Gallery.
Peck’s particular style in this collection is a blend of Renaissance realism and pop-arty surrealism, riffing on or subverting painterly masterpieces with an injection of humour through the anthropomorphisation of her characters or their cross-breeding with more contemporary peers; see for example Wabbit, her take on Albrecht Durer’s 1503 hare portrait spliced with the DNA of a certain Disney bunny.
It’s a mixture of technique and tomfoolery that is disarming and charming, the expertly realised landscapes and vegetation surrounding bug-eyed and buck-toothed beasts, some gazing stoically, others letting their emotions show in human expressions of sorrow. Enjoy this peculiar safari until 27th April at the Beverly Boulevard venue.
Marion Peck
Sick Kitten, 2012
Oil on canvas
24 x 32 inches
Marion Peck
Wabbit, 2012
Oil on canvas
16 x 20 inches
Marion Peck
Bum Rat, 2012
Oil on canvas
12 x 9 inches
Marion Peck
Sad Pig, 2013
Oil on canvas
9 x 12 inches
Marion Peck
Dead Bird, 2012
Oil on canvas
17 x 23 inches
Marion Peck
Fish and Bird, 2012
Oil on canvas
11 x 14 inches
Marion Peck
Hamster in the Grass, 2012
Oil on canvas
12 x 12 inches
