New Jersey-based artist Nancy Depew’s depictions of nature are luxurious and manicured. Her oil paintings combine traditional elements of portraiture, still life and landscape, fusing these genres into harmonious compositions filled with eye candy. Her most recent figure painting series features women reclining into beds of fresh flowers, comfortably resting their heads and bodies on their soft petals as if finding relief at long last. Though Depew’s paintings prioritize craftsmanship (nearly every detail appears to be rendered with a sharp focus), she says that her process is a gestural and intuitive exploration of the figure.
Carlos Mendes, who works under the name CIAS, is a painter and tattoo artist with a penchant toward ancient art history. He shared some of his recent work that blends these worlds in the show "Indelible" at Espaco Exibicionista Gallery. Mendes is based in Lisbon, Portugal.
