Marion Peck "Forgotten Mysteries of the Sublunar Realm"
Nanzuka Underground
Until May 16
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Artists
Marion Peck
NANZUKA is pleased to present “Forgotten Mysteries of the Sublunar Realm,” an exhibition of new works by American artist Marion Peck at NANZUKA UNDERGROUND. This exhibition marks the artist’s second solo show at NANZUKA following her first exhibition in Japan held at the gallery in 2022.
Marion Peck was born in Manila, the Philippines in 1963, while her family was on a trip. She grew up in Seattle and received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1985. Subsequently, she studied in two MFA programs at Syracuse University in New York and Temple University in Rome. Since holding her first solo exhibition in 1990 at the Marianne Partlow Gallery in Olympia, Washington, Peck has presented her work internationally in numerous locations including San Francisco, New York, Rome, and Paris.
Peck is known as one of the leading artists of Lowbrow Art, which originated in Southern California, and Pop Surrealism, the broader movement that evolved from it. Peck has also maintained strong ties with Juxtapoz, a magazine founded in 1994 by Robert Williams, the godfather of Lowbrow Art who first advocated for the movement in 1979. Peck, along with her husband Mark Ryden, who held his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles in 1994, and Ed “Bid Daddy” Roth, who was rediscovered in the 1990s and is well-known in Japan for the iconic “Rat Fink,” is recognized as a key figure in post-1990s American underground culture.
However, the uniqueness of Peck’s work goes beyond simply being a part of these movements. In fact, Peck has stated that while there is a certain connection between her own work and the early lowbrow scene—which is particularly closely associated with Hot Rod culture known for its “macho” aesthetic—she does not consider herself a successor to it. This is because, much like many female Surrealists of the past, Peck’s work reflects a skeptical attitude towards the patriarchal culture rooted in the real world. Peck, making a metaphorical reference to the relationship between the sun and the moon in ancient Western astrology, comments as follows:
Perhaps the greatest price we pay for our modern way of life is our devaluation of mystery.. Scientific materialism creates a constant movement towards explaining mysteries away, and so destroying their power. The rainbow is “nothing but” light refracting through water droplets. The universe itself is “nothing but” dead, meaningless matter. One by one, our thinking goes, all mysteries will be slain, like dragons, by modern, scientific warriors.
Our mindset is what the astrologers of antiquity would have characterized as “solar” consciousness. We value reason over intuition, quantification over qualification, seeking only light filled clarity and certainty, shunning the ambiguities of the dark. But the ancients knew that while the Sun ruled the day, the nighttime was ruled by the Moon. They called our world “the sublunar realm”, filled as it is with ever changing forms, emerging, living, dying, growing, shrinking, ever repeating rhythms and cycles, like those of the Moon. Lunar consciousness gives value to the mysteries of the night…like, for example, dreams. It recognizes there are other forms of intelligence besides that of humans. It recognizes all that goes on in the dark, all that, even if we cannot see, we can feel.
The Sun is associated with the masculine, the Moon with the feminine. As patriarchy, with its exclusively solar consciousness, has gripped the world ever more tightly, lunar consciousness has been devalued. My work is about giving value back where it has been taken away. Though I don’t set out to make “feminist” art, I think of my art as celebrating and honoring what could be called the “feminine". The small sizes of my paintings reflect this. My paintings are not heroic. They are not out to impress. They feel more at home in personal, rather than public settings. They aren’t about communicating a message that can be put into words, but rather, connecting with the viewer on an intimate, emotional level. They arise spontaneously, and by giving them form, I seek to honor their source. I don’t feel the need to explain them, and in this way, I seek to honor their mystery.
—Marion Peck
This exhibition features 21 new works of meticulously detailed oil paintings rendered on small woodblocks. The high degree of realism and the sacred atmosphere that permeate these works are reminiscent of religious paintings of the 15th-16th century Northern Renaissance. Furthermore, the caring gestures—such as affection, consideration and dialogue—exchanged between the anthropomorphized animals and the human figures with enlarged heads featured in this series, while set within Peck’s unique and peculiar world, appear to viewers as something strangely comforting. They indeed seem to suggest a glimmer of hope for the restoration of sublunar realm values that have long been belittled under the guise of gender-based role norms.
Marion Peck was born in Manila, the Philippines in 1963, while her family was on a trip. She grew up in Seattle and received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1985. Subsequently, she studied in two MFA programs at Syracuse University in New York and Temple University in Rome. Since holding her first solo exhibition in 1990 at the Marianne Partlow Gallery in Olympia, Washington, Peck has presented her work internationally in numerous locations including San Francisco, New York, Rome, and Paris.
Peck is known as one of the leading artists of Lowbrow Art, which originated in Southern California, and Pop Surrealism, the broader movement that evolved from it. Peck has also maintained strong ties with Juxtapoz, a magazine founded in 1994 by Robert Williams, the godfather of Lowbrow Art who first advocated for the movement in 1979. Peck, along with her husband Mark Ryden, who held his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles in 1994, and Ed “Bid Daddy” Roth, who was rediscovered in the 1990s and is well-known in Japan for the iconic “Rat Fink,” is recognized as a key figure in post-1990s American underground culture.
However, the uniqueness of Peck’s work goes beyond simply being a part of these movements. In fact, Peck has stated that while there is a certain connection between her own work and the early lowbrow scene—which is particularly closely associated with Hot Rod culture known for its “macho” aesthetic—she does not consider herself a successor to it. This is because, much like many female Surrealists of the past, Peck’s work reflects a skeptical attitude towards the patriarchal culture rooted in the real world. Peck, making a metaphorical reference to the relationship between the sun and the moon in ancient Western astrology, comments as follows:
Perhaps the greatest price we pay for our modern way of life is our devaluation of mystery.. Scientific materialism creates a constant movement towards explaining mysteries away, and so destroying their power. The rainbow is “nothing but” light refracting through water droplets. The universe itself is “nothing but” dead, meaningless matter. One by one, our thinking goes, all mysteries will be slain, like dragons, by modern, scientific warriors.
Our mindset is what the astrologers of antiquity would have characterized as “solar” consciousness. We value reason over intuition, quantification over qualification, seeking only light filled clarity and certainty, shunning the ambiguities of the dark. But the ancients knew that while the Sun ruled the day, the nighttime was ruled by the Moon. They called our world “the sublunar realm”, filled as it is with ever changing forms, emerging, living, dying, growing, shrinking, ever repeating rhythms and cycles, like those of the Moon. Lunar consciousness gives value to the mysteries of the night…like, for example, dreams. It recognizes there are other forms of intelligence besides that of humans. It recognizes all that goes on in the dark, all that, even if we cannot see, we can feel.
The Sun is associated with the masculine, the Moon with the feminine. As patriarchy, with its exclusively solar consciousness, has gripped the world ever more tightly, lunar consciousness has been devalued. My work is about giving value back where it has been taken away. Though I don’t set out to make “feminist” art, I think of my art as celebrating and honoring what could be called the “feminine". The small sizes of my paintings reflect this. My paintings are not heroic. They are not out to impress. They feel more at home in personal, rather than public settings. They aren’t about communicating a message that can be put into words, but rather, connecting with the viewer on an intimate, emotional level. They arise spontaneously, and by giving them form, I seek to honor their source. I don’t feel the need to explain them, and in this way, I seek to honor their mystery.
—Marion Peck
This exhibition features 21 new works of meticulously detailed oil paintings rendered on small woodblocks. The high degree of realism and the sacred atmosphere that permeate these works are reminiscent of religious paintings of the 15th-16th century Northern Renaissance. Furthermore, the caring gestures—such as affection, consideration and dialogue—exchanged between the anthropomorphized animals and the human figures with enlarged heads featured in this series, while set within Peck’s unique and peculiar world, appear to viewers as something strangely comforting. They indeed seem to suggest a glimmer of hope for the restoration of sublunar realm values that have long been belittled under the guise of gender-based role norms.
Schedule Now in session | Apr 11 (Sat) 2026-May 16 (Sat) 2026 34 days left Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Apr 11 (Sat) 2026 17:00 - 19:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | https://nanzuka.com/en/exhibitions/marion-peck-forgotten-mysteries-of-the-sublunar-realm | ||||
| Venue | Nanzuka Underground http://www.nug.jp | ||||
| Location | 3-30-10 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001 | ||||
| Access | 8 minute walk from exit 5 at Meiji-jingumae Station on the Chiyoda and Fukutoshin lines, 10 minute walk from the Takeshita exit of Harajuku Station on the JR Yamanote line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-5422-3877 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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