Missionaries of Taste

“The surface of the image, mere appearance, is often beguiling, but it is very dangerous to believe in everything beautiful that one sees.” - Anna Backman Rogers

Drawing on imagery from contemporary interior design magazines, Missionaries of Taste examines how magazines carefully curate and shape our desires. In this body of work, Ava L. Peterson combines collage with paint that seeps, bleeds, and inhabits the interior as a tool for questioning symbols of class aspiration. Peterson invites viewers to question whether the danger revealed beneath the beguiling surface is, in fact, the American Dream.

Peterson (b. 2002, OH) received a BFA in Studio Art from Denison University (‘24) and is an MFA candidate in Painting & Drawing at SAIC (’26). Notable Solo exhibitions include House & Garden (Incubator Gallery) and Clear the Kitchen Table (Bryant Arts Center), and group show In a Child’s Place (Purple Window Gallery).

Images courtesy of the artist.

Ava Peterson

December 12, 2025 - January 2, 2026 at Art City