Los Angeles-based artist Pedro Pedro specializes in capturing the playful anxiety of our everyday milieu. His still life paintings include fruit bowls, lavish spreads of food or clothes chaotically strewn about. While everything exists in bold color, Pedro’s imagery remains soft in texture from applying textile paint onto unprimed linen.
In his most recent exhibition June 2021 at The Hole in Tribeca, the artist continues to create subtle and sinister juxtapositions, specifically drawing attention to the contiguity of our daily virtues and vices. Fruits and vegetables are paired with cigarette butts and decadent meats; an extravagant salad is accompanied by nail clippers. There are traces of an active and healthy subject, but with a torpidity that becomes evident through their used tissues and misplaced keys.
In Pedro’s painted universe, wholesomeness coexists with disquiet tension. This tension is underscored by the artist’s skewed perspective and flat planes, upon which all objects sit as if ready to fall off the canvas. Most important to Pedro’s practice however, is his intuition, drafted from a collage of images, his scenes come together as he goes along, allowing his inner thoughts to shine through, while also leaving space for our own.