Lot 72 - Ally Rae Peeples - Paradise Gained (Part 2)

Ink on paper
2025
A6 (10x15cm)
Original Artwork
Signed on Verso
Curated by Victoria Lucas

About

Los Angeles-based figurative oil painter Ally Rae Peeples centers her work around the various ways people distort reality. Drawing inspiration from the byproducts of tourism culture that surrounded her as a child in her hometown of Orlando, Florida, Ally’s unique, caricature-like style has earned her exhibitions worldwide. After graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in drawing, she began experimenting with oil paint and held her first solo exhibition at Lowell Ryan Projects in 2023, titled Crowd Surfing. The show garnered attention from publications such as Artillery Magazine. Since then, Ally has participated in group shows at various galleries and most recently completed an artist residency at Moosey Gallery in Norwich, UK.

Education

2018-2021
Bachelor’s in Drawing at The University of Georgia

Solo Exhibitions

2023
Crowd Surfing, Lowell Ryan Projects, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork

For the Paradise Lost show with Art on a Postcard, Ally explored the irony of Adam and Eve as Halloween costumes. She was drawn to the idea that what may seem like utopia for one could be hell for another, as John Milton’s Paradise Lost depicts when Satan enters paradise and finds it torturous. Ally challenges the conventional idea that paradise was lost when Eve ate the apple, urging viewers to reconsider how paradise might actually have been gained. In many ways, humanity was shaped by the acknowledgment of mortality’s flaws, creating space for life to be lived within imperfection. Trivializing and even sexualizing these biblically significant figures for a holiday defined by playful irreverence reinforces the notion that living in sin could be seen as a kind of alternative paradise.