Marion Peck is a pop surrealist painter based in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Early life

Peck was born in

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

, while her family was on a trip around the world. She grew up in Seattle and is the youngest of four children. Peck received a BFA from the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...

in 1985. She studied in two different MFA programs:

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

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and

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. She lived in Italy for a few years, where she studied its culture. She began her exhibitions in the United States and international, starting in 1990. On October 24, 2009, Peck married longtime partner,

Mark Ryden Mark Ryden (born January 20, 1963) is an American painter who is considered to be part of the Lowbrow (or pop surrealist) art movement. He was dubbed "the god-father of pop surrealism" by ''Interview'' magazine.pop surrealism Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, is an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California area in the late 1960s. It is a populist art movement with its cultural roots in underground comix, punk music, tiki culture, graffiti, and ...

and has exhibited her work in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, New York,

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San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, and Seattle. She is represented by the Dorothy Circus Gallery. Her work has been featured in album covers, such as '' Waking the Mystics'' (2006) by Portland

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an ar ...

group, Sophe Lux. Peck released many art books including ''Sweet Wishes'' (2008), ''Animal Lover Summer'' (2010), and ''Lamb Land: The Art of Marion Peck'' (2016). Peck mainly paints in oil and her style is inspired by Greek mythology, based on her trip to Greece, astrology, and art from the Italian Renaissance. Other influences include allusions to Eden, Jehovah's Witnesses' pamphlets, The Last Supper, Russian orthodox iconology, religious oil prints, clowns, masks, extinct creatures, old Dutch oil paintings of home interiors, and 19th-century cabinet photography. She tackles political satire and social problems such as deforestation of the rainforest. When discussing her topics, Peck claims, "that she wanted her messages to be a visual one, not literary." Her art has been described by Widewalls as "simultaneously heartbreakingly sweet and full of humor."

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions: * 1990: Marianne Partlow Gallery, Olympia, WA * 1993 - 2001: Galleria Dusseldorf/ Roma, Rome, Italy * 1994 - 2001: Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA * 2000: Olga Dollar Gallery, San Francisco, CA * 2006: Mondo Bizzarro Gallery, Rome, Italy * 2007: Billy Shire Fine Arts, Culver City, CA * 2009 - 2010: Sloan Fine Art, New York, NY * 2013: Michael Kohn Projects * 2015 - 2016: Magda Danysz Gallery, Paris, France * 2016: ''Promenade Magiques'', Magda Danyz Gallery, Paris, France * 2018: ''StraVolti'', Dorothy Circus Gallery, Rome, Italy * 2020: ''Between Worlds'', Magda Danyz Gallery, Shanghai, China * 2020: ''Red Clown, Blue Clown'', Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Publications

* ''I Cari Estini (The Dearly Departed),'' Mondo Bizzaro Gallery, January 1, 2006 * ''Sweet Wishes,'' coeauthor Mark Ryden, Porterhouse, January 1, 2008 * ''Animal Summer Love,'' Last Gap, November 1, 2010 * ''Lamb Land: The Art of Marion Peck,'' Cernunnos, September 20, 2016 * ''The Art of Marion Peck: A Portfolio of 30 Deluxe Postcards,'' Cernunnos, March 17, 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peck, Marion American feminist artists 1963 births Living people Fantastic art Sympathy for the Record Industry artists Painters from Washington (state) Artists from Seattle Artists from Manila Rhode Island School of Design alumni Syracuse University alumni Temple University alumni 21st-century American women painters 21st-century American painters American pop artists American surrealist artists