By Alicia Eler

James J. Peterson's show, Snooping for a New Lexis of Peace at gescheidle, forces viewers to consider all the recent art shows about war and re-examine them in a new light. In his first solo show at gescheidle gallery, the artist questions the lack of new anti-war imagery, but also observes that the work in most art exhibitions actually contemplates the external messages we are being fed instead of searching for new solution or a new "lexis of peace."

Take Consuming War at the Hyde Park Art Center, for example. The show covered the U.S. conflict in the Middle East and how American media and consumer culture have manipulated and influenced our perceptions of war, turning it into a spectacle for consumer culture and the media. The work funnels right into Peterson's point of departure: that shows about war are not about anti-war imagery, but instead about artists' highly individualistic reactions to the whole shabang.

Now we embark upon Peterson's show, leaving the many war-related art exhibitions in the dust. Riffing on hippie notions of peace, love and all that other free-flowing stuff, Peterson presents Psychedelic Door, a 62-inch tall acrylic on wood panel painting of a sad, spherical, Pinocchio-looking character with a long orange nose and forlorn blue eyes. He looks tired. He seems distant. Judging from the title of this piece, he's also probably done a few too many psychedelics. Splats of variously colored paint drip in the background. Maybe Pinocchio dude had been chilling out too long in the slick black-and-white VW hippie bus in the small acrylic painting Micro Bus, which is parked in the middle of a lush green landscape occupied by a rudimentary, three-story tower hovering behind it, adorned with multi-colored little flags. If there ever was an image of 1960s peace-and-love that looked like Joan Didion's book Slouching Toward Bethlehem reads, this has to be it.

Micro Bus, acrylic on wood, 12” x 12", 2008

Peterson takes the hippie vibes up a notch with Glass Weed Holder 1, a clear glass vase with glass marijuana leaves on a stalk sticking up out of it. At first glance, this piece just looks like ornamentation or some sort of pithy interior design object. But by making the plant and its holder out of glass, Peterson plays with the idea of a glass bong—and a seemingly complacent art object that, actually, harbors strong anti-war, peace-loving connotations. Glass Weed Holder, a similar piece, nicely compliments the aforementioned: It's merely a glass bowl filled with broken glass marijuana leaves and stalks. Even your peace-loving mom could put it in her living room without freaking her friends out.

The artist also mixes in small, delightful, psychedelic paintings with his smart sculptures and large-scale work. Yellow Psychedelic Landscape, a small-scale acrylic on wood painting of a hazy, star-speckled orangish sky with a disruptive, giant orange splotch splayed across the middle, looks like an acid trip gone awry, but not in an annoying, Grateful Dead poster-looking sort of way. Everything in this minute masterpiece has been perfectly calculated, especially the blue, rippled mountains, green pasture and wandering, twisting bushes and plants.

Yellow Psychedelic Landscape, acrylic on wood, 30” x 6.5”, 2008

Everything in Peterson's show has a similar, low-key vibe to it. His work takes objects and ideas back to the original hippie, peace-and-love mentality and away from caustic critiques of media images and consumer culture. It's a refreshing break, sort of like getting a sweet high when you're used to getting sloppy drunk. Not only do Peterson's pieces stand up well individually, but as a complete body of work they announce a profound new approach to a topic that we all already thought was cashed.

gescheidle's next show, Chris Verene: Self Esteem Salon begins on April 4th.