Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Jerome Lagarrigue Paints Brooklyn Locals in “Red Hook Sonata”

Jerome Lagarrigue has depicted many subjects throughout his career- boxers and supermodels to his multi-racial Brooklyn neighbors- but his focus has always been simply, "painting people". The French born artist traces his interest in portraiture to art school, where it was difficult to find a model and this encouraged him to study his own face. These introspective exercises on expression, color, and psyche continue to inform his oil paintings. He also practiced graffiti, influencing his manner of working in large scale with roughly defined areas.

Jerome Lagarrigue has depicted many subjects throughout his career- boxers and supermodels to his multi-racial Brooklyn neighbors- but his focus has always been simply, “painting people”. The French born artist traces his interest in portraiture to art school, where it was difficult to find a model and this encouraged him to study his own face. These introspective exercises on expression, color, and psyche continue to inform his oil paintings. He also practiced graffiti, influencing his manner of working in large scale with roughly defined areas.

“I paint in layers and very gesturally at times,” Lagarrigue explains. “I want the viewer to witness the process within the work, which explains why certain areas are left untouched. If one moves close to the surface the painting becomes abstract it is only once you step back that you can read the image and its entirety. I usually select one area that will receive more detailed attention echoing the mechanism of a camera lens.”

“Red Hook Sonata” is Lagarrigue’s continued exploration of portraying local faces, a series of self portraits and subjects who are living in the Red Hook area in Brooklyn. Here, Lagarrigue explains that he scrutinizes and questions the “soul of Brooklyn”, the district where he has been living for the past ten years. Through his depiction of his neighborhood’s inhabitants, whether anonymous or known, this new body of work represents “a metaphorical portrait of the city.” “Red Hook Sonata” opens on June 2nd at Galerie Olivier Waltman in Paris, France.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Jen Mann’s stirring oil portraits blend realism and abstraction, isolating aspects of the face for photo-negative representations and graphic notes. Mann uses contemporary iconography in her works, using emojis and film subtitles as inspiration. Her toying with a single subject over many portraits represent the prism of personality.
In the recent, enormous portraits painted by Mike Dargas, the artist pays homage to major figures in art history and tucks surprises into their contours. With “The Unbreakable," which honors Frida Kahlo, the artist says she was "physically broken but her spirit was unbreakable and her powerful essence eternal.” See more of his recent portraits below.
South African artist Ryan Hewett looks straight to the core of his subjects in boldly expressive paintings. For his upcoming exhibition "Untitled" at the Unit London, opening April 24th, Hewett depicts world leaders and influencers as we aren't used to seeing them. His portraits of President Obama, JFK, Martin Luther King, and Contemporary artists like Ai Weiwei are stripped down to the most vague details. If there is any power to be represented, it is in his gestural technique, heavily influenced by figurative painters like Frank Auerbach. By focusing on the raw human nature of his subjects, Hewett creates a non-specific portrayal that is free of judgement.
Halloween is supposed to be about embracing the sinister, but somewhere along the way, sinister became sexy. Enter the sexy Halloween costume. Artist Deborah Oropallo embraces this costume phenomenon in her layered photo-montages of subjects best known by their masterpiece museum portraits. For her series titled "Guise", Oropallo superimposed pigmented photographic prints and acrylic painting in a way that makes her costumed subjects almost indistinguishable. If you look closely, suddenly, famous faces such as the Girl with a Pearl Earring become the Sexy Maid, Sexy Nurse, Sexy Circus Ringmaster, the list goes on.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List