figurative painting – Page 2

April 9, 2026April 12, 2026, by Anna Shukeylo

Elisa Jensen at Astor Weeks, A Quiet Pause in Chaotic Times

Nestled on the 3rd floor of 209 Canal Street, off a particularly bustling block in Chinatown, is a show of Elisa Jensen’s paintings titled Invitation politely, at Astor Weeks Gallery. These works echo Bonnard’s complex compositions with windows and the depth of space in Vuillard’s work. The paintings are various memories of places close to the artist’s heart: her home in Brooklyn, the house of her late parents that no longer stands, and her aunt and uncle’s home in Denmark. Jensen knows how to whisper through paint and tell a quiet poem in scumbles, with a profound feeling of color. Her playful use of iridescent paint leaves the paintings to be experienced as they change drastically with subtle shifts in lighting. It is as if each painting carries many versions of itself throughout the course of the day, as the light changes.

April 6, 2026March 30, 2026, by Etty Yaniv

Tobias Pils: Shh at Mumok Vienna

Tobias Pils’s paintings do not give themselves up quickly. It took me two long visits to begin to grasp his extensive solo exhibition at Mumok, curated by Manuela Ammer across two floors and ten years of work. The show traces a practice rooted in personal experience and daily life, charting a shift from floor to easel painting and revealing how drawing and painting remain in constant dialogue throughout. The layout rewards sustained attention and makes the changes over time visible. I viewed the exhibition in reverse, starting with the floor of Pils’s most recent works.

March 10, 2026March 9, 2026, by Taylor Bielecki

Narratives and expressive figures in Judy Glantzman’s Playing with Dolls at P.P.O.W

Glantzman’s heroically scaled works immerse viewers in the energetic world that she creates. I really appreciate the diversity in scale of the works in this show. The smaller-sized canvases offer a snapshot, still detailed but a more compact telling of the world she is creating. Whereas the larger works allow viewers to step in and entangle themselves within the forms, narratives, symbols, and ideas that Glantzman offers. Walking into the gallery brought an immediate sense of excitement, wonder, and a need for exploration and adventure within the pieces. The paintings introduce the characters and scenes, while the ceramics are the pieces Glantzman chooses to pluck directly from the compositions and bring into 3D forms.

March 2, 2026March 20, 2026, by Mer Mora

Cathleen Clarke: The Past Won’t Stay Put at Margot Samel

It had just rained in New York City when the smell of wet grass and pine in Central Park transported me somewhere else entirely: back in my hometown, a place I hadn’t lived in for a decade. I could’ve sworn I heard the same birds I woke up to every morning. The reminiscence was completely involuntary, but for a few seconds, I found myself caught inside an instant that felt like a different lifetime. This is the feeling that Episodes, Cathleen Clarke’s new exhibitionat Margot Samel, creates. There is no nostalgia or comfort, but instead, the disorienting realization that the past has intruded on the present uninvited.

February 24, 2026February 23, 2026, by Ella Jackson

Lacey McKinney: Where Bodies Blur

Born and raised in New York, Lacey McKinney is a New York-based fine artist whose work explores the tensions between interspecies dynamics, gender and ecology, the paradox of life and death, and bodily transformation and decay. Having exhibited nationally, received major grants such as the NYFA/NYSCA Project Grant, and completed residencies including the McColl Center, McKinney’s practice continues to evolve. Her work meditates on the complexities of existence, as self and in relation to others, unraveling the differences that separate us, and highlighting the interdependence entangled within all species, ecosystems, and identities.

McKinney’s gestural material application and stylistic dynamism merge, meld, reconfigure, and transform figures, flora, and fauna, creating liminal compositions that blur where form begins and ends. Her pigments and paints examine the relationship between predator and prey, a relationship that, though antagonistic, still relies on reciprocity to survive. Insides become outsides, differences become diffused, and touch becomes transformative.

August 26, 2025August 28, 2025, by Adria Arch

Earth Suits and Beast Machines

left, Jennifer Amadeo-Holl, *Earth Suits* – *Reflections on Thought*, 2022, oil on canvas,, 49” x 64”, right, Mike Libby, *Quarter Vital Amalgam*, 2025, Apoxie sculpt and mixed media, 14” X 14” X 66”, photo by Adria Arch

The two-person exhibition Earth Suits and Beast Machines at Cove Street Arts in Portland, Maine, orchestrates a compelling conversation between Boston painter Jennifer Amadeo-Holl and Maine sculptor Mike Libby. This thoughtfully curated show rewards careful attention, presenting work that resists easy consumption and demands genuine engagement from viewers willing to slow down and look deeply.

July 10, 2025July 10, 2025, by Rory Martin

Naomi Okubo: Resonance on a Surface at Fou Gallery

A painting on a wall

AI-generated content may be incorrect. — Installation image of Naomi Okubo: Resonance on a Surface, 2025. Photograph by Ken Lee

When Naomi Okubo decides to begin working on one of her enthralling paintings, there is a multistep process that far proceeds the brush gracing the canvas. The careful preparation of materials, digital and physical, allow Okubo to consolidate her thoughts and produce an organic depiction of her personal experience. The authenticity with which this is depicted is a result of the forethought and boundless introspection that she imposes upon herself. It is important to note that the artworks selected for the exhibition Naomi Okubo: Resonance on a Surface currently on view at Fou Gallery, weave a narrative fabric that chronologizes Okubo’s development as a visual artist.

June 25, 2025June 24, 2025, by Noa Charuvi

Natalia Zourabova: Nightlight at Kaliner Gallery

I am meeting Natalia at Kaliner gallery on a steamy day in June. The artist, who arrived here for this milestone exhibition, her first solo in New York, is uncertain when and how she will be able to return home to Israel. The war in Iran was launched just a week after the opening. Stranded away from her family, she remains determined and optimistic. This toughness in the face of chaos is also evident in her artwork. The paintings in Nightlight are vibrant, large, and striking.

May 6, 2025May 4, 2025, by Eva Zanardi

Io Sono LEONOR FINI – Decoding the Sphinx of Surrealism

Installation view, *Io Sono LEONOR FINI* *(I Am LEONOR FINI)*

The grand halls of Milan’s Palazzo Reale currently host a seminal tribute to artistic defiance and fierce individuality. On view from February 26 through June 22, 2025, Io Sono LEONOR FINI (I Am LEONOR FINI) presents one of the most comprehensive retrospectives dedicated to an artist whose untamed, rebellious gaze still challenges and mesmerizes viewers from across the temporal divide.

February 20, 2025March 3, 2025, by Taylor Bielecki

Robert Yarber- Regard and Abandon at Nicodim Gallery

Robert Yarber, *Error’s Conquest*, 1986, acrylic on canvas, 71 by 130 inches. Photo courtesy of Nicodim Gallery

Neon nights are brought to life within Robert Yarber’s paintings. The large-scale paintings in Nicodim Gallery’s survey of his works bring viewers along for a wild ride. Whether it’s pulling us into a dark hotel room, lit solely by the blue light of a droning, static television set, or throwing us outside, into the life of the party, and possibly, over the balcony and into the air- we are left in suspense of what comes next. It’s as if we were sitting in a dark movie theater, watching someone’s life story unfold.