Vortex of Despair Acrylic on stretched canvas 40"x60"
"Because of a combination of the theme of the work and his technical abilities,
Peterson's paintings have a timeless symbolic meaning rather than the mere appearance of a photograph.
"By making something beautiful and hyper-real in appearance, I think he attempts to remind us that people
suffering terribly are living, breathing, thinking, and feeling individuals in need of our attention and help."
Chris Ashley, LookSee
“To witness genocide is to feel not
only the chill of your own mortality, but the degradation of all humanity.
Even the most brilliant photography cannot capture the landscape of genocide."
Fergal Keane, BBC
"Maybe we need people who can remind us what being human is all about,
its best and its worst.
Denis Peterson may not want to be one of those people. But then he may not have a choice."
Chris Rywalt, NYC Art
“What makes it all the more unnerving is that this horrific subject matter is
treated with a sophisticated, hyperrealist airbrush technique
and so exquisitely crafted that I initially took them for photographs."
Robert Ayers, ArtInfo
"The everyday nature of the subject matter likewise works to secure the painting as a realist object. The hyperrealist genre, however, is clearly more than just an attempt to replicate the mechanical action of taking a photograph."
Graham Thompson "American Culture", Edinburgh University Press
“Loss of home is an unbearable consequence of diaspora.
Denis Peterson's hyperrealist portrait of a homeless man is a stark reminder of humanity displaced."
Mary Birmingham, Jersey Journal
"This is an artist who has chosen to use his art as a humanitarian effort
to change the world, as seen in his stunning Darfur paintings on genocide."
Brenda Blockman, FOX TV Real Time Interview
"Western artists such as David, da Vinci and Denis Peterson are important in part because of their skill and innovation,
but also because they come from cultures that dominate the modern global power scene. Renaissance painters catered to emerging
capitalism, the sons in David’s painting “Oath of the Horati” symbolize French colonies, and Peterson’s Darfur painting, “Don’t Shed No Tears”
provokes America to intervene with her wealth."
Ari Siletz, A Brush Stroke for Every Human Suffering
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