Lamar Peterson

Lamar Peterson (b. 1974, St. Petersburg, Florida) is a painter whose work explores the psychological and social space between refuge and exposure. For more than two decades, he has rendered the everyday experiences of Black life with a language that merges stylized figuration, domestic ritual, and surreal distortion. Across both painting and collage, Peterson creates scenes where tranquility and unease coexist: suburban gardens bloom into uncanny environments, rooms soften and dissolve into landscape, and figures pursue moments of rest and care even as the outside world presses near. Peterson’s visual vocabulary ranges from cartoon inflections and bold color to pared-down forms that verge on the symbolic. In his hands, a gesture—cooking a meal, tending a plant, pausing in thought—becomes a quietly radical act of autonomy. His subjects often appear in transitional spaces: windows, thresholds, and gardens that double as emotional terrain, reflecting the fragile distance between sanctuary and scrutiny, vulnerability and strength. Peterson has held solo exhibitions at Deitch Projects, New York; Carl Kostyál, Stockholm; and Fredericks & Freiser, New York, where he is represented. He has also had institutional solo exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem; the Orlando Museum of Art; the University Art Museum at SUNY Albany; and the Rochester Art Center, among others. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at SITE Santa Fe, The Drawing Center, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Katonah Museum of Art, the International Print Center New York, and the Yale University Art Gallery. Peterson received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001. He lives and works in Minneapolis, where he is Associate Professor of Drawing & Painting at the University of Minnesota. Lamar Peterson, The Proud Gardener, 2021, Oil on canvas, 70 x 85 inches. Courtesy Fredericks & Freiser, New York, Photo Credit: Cary Whittier Lamar Peterson, The Worrier, 2024, Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches. Courtesy Fredericks & Freiser, New York, Photo Credit: Cary Whittier Lamar Peterson, Exhilarated, 2025, Mixed media and collage on paper, 17 x 12 inches. Courtesy Fredericks & Freiser, New York, Photo Credit: Cary Whittier