Currently on view at Roq la Rue Gallery in Seattle, Washington is artist Peter Ferguson’s solo exhibition, “Avenge Me, Lunatic Corpse!”
Peter Ferguson’s vividly imaginative works read like a lucid dream of an alternate history, recalling the aesthetics of Dutch Renaissance painting, old National Geographic photography, and 18th century British Naval history and 19th Century Natural History illustrations. Meticulously painted, Ferguson’s darkly humorous narratives evoke an achronological magical realism, featuring composite cities and landscapes comprised of everything from from 16th Century European towns to early 20th century Americana (or Canadiana as the case may be). Combining grandiose narratives of the great ages of exploration with a distinctly paranormal bent, Ferguson’s work subtly hovers the line between fantasy, surrealism, and realism without ever falling into either of them fully. Norman Rockwell meets H.P. Lovecraft. Luminously painted and complex in their composition, his paintings are made with a built in patina to evoke the feel of long lost magical works found in the dusty corner of some old gentleman’s explorer club library.
