With Wakan Tonka—a Lakota term meaning “Great Spirit”—Peter Maier delivers a reverent monument to nature’s divinity. At once photorealistic and metaphysical, this 9-foot-square painting fuses the sacred and the sublime through the hyper-detailed visage of a white-tailed stag, its antlers rendered like celestial architecture against a cosmic field of oxidized shadow and diffused light.

Maier’s technique is singular: using automotive Axalta Cromax AT aluminum paints, he builds radiant surfaces with a depth and reflectivity unattainable by traditional oils. The result is a visual energy that shifts as the viewer moves—an experience as dynamic as it is spiritual.

Evoking cave iconography, American iconography, and futurist materiality, Wakan Tonka is a modern relic, simultaneously ancient and contemporary. It stands as a meditative centerpiece for any collector seeking to bridge environmental majesty with conceptual gravitas.

WAKAN TONKA

2021

Dimensions: 108” x 108”

Medium: Axalta Cromax AT on Aluminum

Artist: Peter Maier