Grunts Rare Books

By SUSAN GESCHEIDLE

GRUNTS RARE BOOKS – Peter Carney, The Nightside of Eden

Peter Carney can paint, and beautifully! Carney grew up in Utah; played in a punk band in high school; was given free paints by a friend after high school that led to his interest in painting; and has a background working back of house in restaurants. So how did he end up in Chicago, break into the tight-knit art scene here, and secure a solo show at Grunts Rare Books—an unassuming but well-regarded bookstore and curated project space? And has Carney’s extensive restaurant experience influenced his art practice? To get answers I headed to Grunts Rare Books for the Friday night opening of Carney’s first solo painting exhibition, The Nightside of Eden.

Grunts Rare Books opened in October 2024, and is co-owned/operated/directed by Marc LeBlanc and Taylor Payton. Payton portrays it as, “Chicago’s premier bookstore for rare books, exhibition catalogs, and other exhibition ephemera that document the history of modern and contemporary art in printed material.” Adjacent to the bookstore is the project space for curated art exhibitions. The creative duo of LeBlanc and Payton share a passion for books, readings, poetry, performances, film screenings, and art exhibitions. Thus, Grunts Rare Books serves as a gathering space for intellectuals and creatives of all sorts to hang out and have conversations. It’s a dynamic yet low-key multifaceted space, much like the beatnik coffee shops one might have frequented in the '60s. 

While LeBlanc and Payton are Co-Directors of the bookstore, Payton curates the exhibition program in the adjacent gallery (a continuation of her former apartment gallery, SULK.) Payton, a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), is one of the busiest people I know. She works not only at M. LeBlanc and Grunts Rare Books but bartends at Inner Town Pub—which bills itself as “Home to the Arts,” and is located around the corner from the historic Rainbo Club. And for the past two years Payton has curated onsite public programs for EXPO CHICAGO, the contemporary art fair held at Navy Pier. She does it all, and she does it well. 

Stepping through the doorway of the bookstore into the tiny gallery space, one immediately notices the tall windows and the far-off city skyline. At that time of the day, the windows cast just the right amount of ambient light, bathing the room and Carney’s seven oil-on-panel paintings in a perfect soft glow. Being somewhat familiar with Carney’s work, I was anticipating paintings of miniature figures (often with weapons) as he has painted before. I was delightfully surprised by this new body of work of luscious still lifes and moody seascapes. The paintings convey quietude and are formal compositions with muted palettes and a sophisticated use of light (think Dutch Master vibes.)

Peter Carney, Slim ball, 2024, oil on panel, 18 x 24 in.

The first thing you’re struck by is the imagery of comestibles: a pile of freshly caught Golden Bream fish lying haphazardly on the beach, plump squabs (baby pigeons) hanging on meat hooks drying, a bright pink crab staring us down, and a green apple. Equally attention-grabbing are the melancholic seascapes (several with lone figures on isolated beaches.) All of Carney’s paintings are captivating and elegant—even a bit sensuous. The dangling lifeless squabs, dead fish with bulging eyes, and the crab--still alive with eyes wide open--but as Carney says, “suggesting itself as food,” remind the viewer of the fleeting nature of life and the inevitability of death. The solitary figures in the seascapes are equally unsettling. In Benito Soy the isolated figure stands pensively in the foreground against the sea grass, ocean, and night sky. In Oregon timber and Wet dreams, the reclining and sprawling position of the figures seems to indicate something is amiss, despite the scenic setting. Carney’s seascapes are inspired partially by film stills, videos and playlists he made before he turned twenty, Milton Avery’s seascapes and landscapes, trips to the ocean in California and Maine, and finally, from recent cooking-related trips that took him to Miami and Spain.  

Peter Carney, The Constant of blood, 2025, oil on panel, 18 x 24 in.

Carney moved to Chicago in 2022 to be a part of a broader painting scene with friends. To help supplement his painting practice, he looked for a job. He saw an ad for restaurant work at Kasama, a relatively new Filipino restaurant in his neighborhood, and, fortuitously, he was hired on the spot. It is here that his restaurant background begins to really merge with his artistic world. He started his new job the day Kasama was awarded a Michelin Star–the only Filipino restaurant in the world, coincidentally, with a Michelin Star. It was Carney’s first fine dining restaurant experience, and he began to observe food differently there, leading over time to this exhibition. He worked his way up to Junior Sous Chef in charge of the breakfast team and prep for pop-ups. Seeing food up close and personal day in and day out, Carney was in awe of the splendor of it all (from the colorful ingredients to meat to seafood to finished meals plated and served artfully to guests.) Gourmet food is thoughtfully prepared, and the presentation is a thing of beauty showcasing a chef’s skill, much like the aesthetically pleasing and thoughtful paintings Carney created for this exhibition. Food has long been considered an art form, so it’s a fine line between the sensibility of cooking and sensibility of creating paintings. Carney appears, however, to enthusiastically and successfully blend these two worlds (though full disclaimer, I have yet to get to Kasama to taste his cooking.) On my bucket list! 

Also, through Kasama, Carney traveled to San-Sebastian, Spain, for Gastronomika, to serve breakfast sandwiches, and to Bilboa for a dinner pop-up with Miele Appliances. He walked along the beaches at night with his best friend and painted. Chefs Kitchen brought him to Miami for a pop-up during Art Basel, where he spent every night on the beach recording it and taking photos. 

It seems that Carney has, indeed, been influenced in many ways by his restaurant experiences. Squabs, crabs, and fish became his muses. Their flesh, and the colors and textures of produce and herbs, influenced his palette. And the industrial look and color of the Kasama kitchen inspired his muted minimal (mostly) horizontal backgrounds. The pop-ups, meanwhile, informed his seascape paintings. 

Peter Carney, Wet dreams, 2025, oil on panel, 18 x 24 in.

When asked about artistic influences, Carney says “I fell in love with oil painting and Francis Bacon at first, then eventually really really loved Edouard Vuillard and Matisse.” Bacon’s influence is evident in Carney’s treatment of flesh, most notably in the pile of fish in Slim ball and the squabs in The Constant of blood. The squab flesh appears silky, meaty, and juicy, painted in pink, yellow, and grey, with dabs of gold, set against a stark horizontal horizon of grey and green. Carney is not concerned about tight realism or precise detail-- it’s more about visual quality, color and texture, and the act of loosely rendered painting. Carney’s works evoke emotion and are of a painterly quality, though his brush strokes are delicate and not heavy-handed. Carney, at 26, has a skillful hand and a good eye. 

In the bookstore hang three additional paintings that have a different feeling than the rest of the show. They are fanciful and charming, and the palette is subtler. Cupcake is an oil on panel painting of a yummy-looking koala bear cupcake with a ship silhouette in the background. It’s a stunner with a sugary sweet pinkish-violet palette, which is perfect. The other two smaller pieces, Dance dance revolution and Music farm animal toy, are framed paintings on paper of monkeys. Payton equates the beach to theater in these pieces saying, “two circus monkeys are caught on an absurdist shore by the relentless spin of the disco ball beneath them.” 

Carney’s path to Chicago was via one of his oldest friends, Rachael Bos, another transplanted artist from Utah. Once in the city Carney quickly became immersed in the local art scene, meeting Payton, and discovering SULK. He participated in exhibitions at SULK, Unda.m, Inner Town Pub, and most recently, his work was part of the Miniotics group show at Weatherproof. The Nightside of Eden is Carney’s first solo painting exhibit. Carney is one to watch, and Payton is another.

The exhibition continues at Grunts Rare Books through July 5^th. 

1500 S. Western Avenue, Suite 403.

Open Saturdays 1-4 PM.

gruntsrarebooks.us

You can also find Grunts Rare Books hosting Grunts Plein Air every Sunday at Logan Square Park from 11am-3pm (during warmer months.)

Installation view of The Nightside of Eden

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Publisher's Note: I met Susan Gescheidle when I first moved to Chicago and started working at Chicago Gallery News in 2002. At the time the CGN office was located around the corner from the River North gallery, called gescheidle, Susan had just opened after working at Lyons Wier Gallery for a time. Susan eventually relocated her gallery to Peoria Street in the burgeoning West Loop, then relocated to Lake Street before closing in the fall of 2008.

In fall 2024 I ran into Susan again after many years. We chatted about CGN, as well as how Susan had recently found her way back to being immersed in Chicago's gallery scene, in particular visiting the city's smaller, newer spaces. After following her art outings on Instagram for a couple months, I asked Susan if she'd ever consider sharing her personal and informal dispatches with CGN readers in order to help spotlight and support these spaces, and she graciously accepted. 

– Ginny Van Alyea, CGN Publisher

You can read Susan's other surveys here:

• SAWHORSE

• Weatherproof