February 7–18, 2023
Scottsdale
Opening Reception | February 9 | 7:00–9:00pm
KENNETH PELOKE
Vintage Renderings
Twelve years into his painting career, Kenneth Peloke returns to the roots of his practice—his process. In the early days, he approached imagery through exploration, often erasing entire pieces before starting over on the same project. “I’m recalling the feeling I got back then with the textures and all the imperfections that happen when marks get pushed into the different layers of paint,” he says. His latest paintings find him working in multiple layers with portions erased—effects reminiscent of those early days.
Then as now, his paintings emerge as if worn by age, vintage in their materiality, weathered by wisdom. As is true of the artist: having learned so much from his gallery work, such a return to process feels true to his creative core. Which is true of his subjects too: his equine characters evoke history and memory.
“For me, there is that connection to painting horses which goes back thousands of years. They are vintage staples of the American West. That is a
real feeling for me when I paint them. They take on the look of old photographs. They don’t feel new, with all the filters of today. It’s nice for me to bring back that connection to previous times.” Previous times both personal and historical. Trusted techniques reborn as new compositions, informed by the intervening years with an excitement all their own. Like a palimpsest, his new paintings bear the traces of all he has learned and all he has set out to do, his accomplishments and his ambitions. The marks of his life as an artist.
Passages Oil on canvas | 72 x 72 inches
