S O N J A P E T E R S O N . A R T

A LITTLE ABOUT ME

Biography

Sonja Peterson has exhibited nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Weisman Museum, the Minnesota Museum of American
Art, Purdue University and Gallery Myotatuuli, Raahe, Oulu, Finland and was long represented by the former Burnet Fine Art and Advisory as well as created many large public art commissions. 

Peterson lives and works in Minneapolis, MN. She is a recipient of McKnight Artist and Culture Bearer Fellowship, Minnesota
State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants and the Jerome Travel Grant and has been the artist in residence at the Bell Museum and the American Swedish
Institute and the Changing Climate Residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute.

ABOUT MY PROCESS

My Work

I create large hand-cut stories out of paper that are often suspended in space to create multiple vignettes or chapters throughout a single piece, heightening my objective of drawing the viewer
into the details after the initial glance at the whole narrative.

The slow process of cutting stories
into visual networks is an action that fulfills a need to reexamine and unravel histories of the endless matrix of power structures and systems in today’s world and retell stories of their making. I focus on the environment and where we humans fit within it. 

The works’ structural integrity is, at times, reliant on its interconnectivity; if elements disconnect, the entire system is in threat of collapsing. From the paper cuts, my work branches out to hand made books, collage, stencils, laser-cut and -routed metal and wood sculpture.