In PEACE, John Black reflects on the urgent and fragile pursuit of harmony among nations. The series divides the world into two symbolic categories: countries currently striving to build and sustain peace, and countries still caught in the reality of war. The twelve works are structured with deliberate clarity. Six paintings are dedicated to nations engaged in creating a peaceful future. These appear as singular, intact square canvases — metaphors of cohesion and wholeness — each bearing the national flower of its country. The other six works address nations in conflict and take the form of diptychs: two canvases placed side by side, each devoted to a country bound by war, their flowers set in quiet yet powerful opposition. Technically, the series continues Black’s signature method: classical oil painting layered with transparent acrylic panels, laser-engraved with botanical motifs and inscribed with the word PEACE in each nation’s language. These optical surfaces refract light and complicate perception, making peace feel simultaneously present and precarious — something that must be seen through history and perspective. With PEACE, Black does not offer solutions but creates a space for reflection. National flowers become a shared visual language, reminding us that peace, though delicate and unfinished, remains humanity’s most essential and collective pursuit.