My latest show, “Venus in Hell Pt. 2” is currently up in Hudson, NY until July 31st, 2025.
Updated with new works from 2024, the new iteration opened on July 12 at Window on Hudson, a beautiful storefront gallery owned by The Hudson Eye, an organization with whom I have worked on a multitude of projects over the years. To be included in the stellar group of artists they have shown is a privilege and most certainly a highlight of my career thus far.
2025 has been a year of great change in my art practice. I started off the year with a shaky idea of what I wanted to work on next, and took my foray into realism when I started making oil paintings based on photos of the Mets, after an inspiring postseason run. I spent hours hyper-focused on the tiniest of details, color matching, and getting the proportions of the players to near-perfection. Unlike my usual practice in which I let go of any preciousness, I obsessed over the realism of these pieces and pushed my limits with how much time I could spend focusing on the smallest corner of a painting.
In a way, this new era of creation was a marker of time for my life as an artist. Shunning perfection and tradition throughout most of my 20s led to possessing a scrappy attitude towards my art. Heavily infuenced by outsider and folk art, I embraced the idea that letting go of convention and perfection was the best way to dig into the depths of my creative soul. All that mattered was the effect it had overall–the composition, how my eyes darted around the piece, how it evoked a sense of mystery or even “ugliness” at times. I rarely spent more than a few days working on a piece; sometimes I just spent a few hours on something before calling it done. This process worked for me. I am an overthinker by nature, and being unconcerned with perfection in my art was the most freeing thing I ever did. I needed this process.
While exercising my realism skills this year, I was reminded of how the overarching theme of slowing down had been taking over my entire approach to life as a response to the chaos and immense pressure of living in New York City and the omniscient ways in which technology has taken control of our lives. I’ve lived in NYC for almost my entire life, and the constant movement of this city has always been my norm. But I began to grow tired. I just wanted to slow down and be present. I wanted some quiet time in my mind, and in my life. Without my realizing it, the art of oil painting and realism ended up teaching me a whole lot about patience, trusting the process, and paying attention.
This new installment of “Venus in Hell” met a new audience in Hudson, and turns the page on a chapter of my career that I look forward to writing.
To inquire about the paintings, click here to get in touch.