Sojourn, a new body of work by Canadian-American painter Tim Kent, opened recently at Hollis Taggart’s Chelsea location runs through October 17. Ask Kent what the show is about. He gives you a clean, simple answer. The main idea is just taking a break from working too hard. It’s the kind of respite that chronically overworked New Yorkers rarely give themselves.
In Kent’s telling, rest isn’t relaxation. It’s rebellion.
Kent has spent the last several years painting the mechanics of art-making itself. Artists at work. Canvases in transit. The industry hiding behind the image. Sojourn is the exhale after that. It shows people caught mid-pause. In Passy, a woman sleeps beside a man on a terrace, like she hasn’t quite arrived yet. In Manhattan, a woman in a black dress is visibly worn down by exhaustion, right in the middle of what’s supposed to be a celebration. “It’s about giving yourself permission not to be productive,” Kent says. “These are paintings about people who live in cities and understand the value of rest. They’re not escaping forever. They’re simply stepping away long enough to breathe.”
“Painting rest is harder than painting exhaustion,” he says. “Only at the end did I realize how much time I was putting into it. It wasn’t a sojourn at all. It just became this relentless march. It never stopped.”
The style has changed too. Kent’s recent paintings used more digital elements, like maps, projections, and grids, layered over complex, emotional interiors. But he’s had enough of technology. Social media, once fun, now feels shallow and depressing to him. “I’m rejecting it, politically and personally, to some degree. But you can’t do it professionally.”
He won’t let technology dictate the painting. And he won’t dictate to the viewer what to see in it, either. “I want it simple enough for anyone to enjoy, but with a deeper layer for people who know art history, or who see themselves in it, rather than me telling them what to see.”
There’s another story hiding in the exhibition checklist. Alongside Passy and Manhattan, there’s Valium. Fluoxetine. Lexapro. Dexedrine. Kent admits something quieter here. Some of us can’t slow down on our own anymore. We need a pill to do it for us. Didn’t art used to do it too?
Featured Image: Tim Kent, Passy, 2026, oil on canvas, 56 x 60 in ( 142.2 x 152.4 см), photo courtesy of Tim Kent
Sojourn
Hollis Taggart, 521 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001
September 10 – October 17, 2026
About the Artist: Tim Kent (b. 1975, Vancouver) is a Canadian-American painter based in Brooklyn, New York. A first-generation American of Turkish and English descent, he holds a BFA from Hunter College and an MA in Painting from the University of Sussex, West Dean College, where he trained in perspective painting. His early career rendering historic homes throughout England sparked a lasting interest in the psychological and historical narratives embedded in architecture, design, and power.
Kent’s paintings explore the mechanisms of history and personal memory, and the visual structures that shape our experience. Sojourn continues his ongoing relationship with Hollis Taggart Gallery, following previous solo exhibitions at JD Malat Gallery (London and Dubai), Pilevneli Gallery (Istanbul), Slag Gallery (New York), and Patrick Mikhail Gallery (Montreal). His work has been featured in New Surrealism: The Uncanny in Contemporary Painting (Monacelli Press), as well as in ArtReview, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, New Criterion, Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Lapham’s Quarterly, and Le Monde diplomatique, among others. His paintings are held in public and private collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing; 21c Museum, Louisville; and the Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY.
Courtesy of Hollis Taggart @hollistaggart