James Guppy’s recent acrylic paintings on fabric, juxtaposing floral arrangements and contemporary businessmen, play with “the history of paint and value.” The artist showed his recent body of work in a run at Jan Murphy Gallery, titled “The Venal Garden.” Though absurdist initially in appearance, the works have a specific historical consideration.
“Contemporary capitalism has its roots in Holland and Britain during this period,” the artist said about the series. “The Tulip hysteria of this time was the first modern economic bubble and the tulip bulbs created the first “futures market”. One of the great outcomes of this economic frenzy are the Dutch Baroque paintings. Without this boom we would probably not have the works of artists such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, Artemesia Gentilleschi, Willem van Aelst or Rachel Ruysch.”
See more of Guppy’s recent paintings below.
It's not hard to become absorbed in 
Gregory Ferrand’s cinematic paintings, often laced with anachronisms, speak to a broader sense of isolation belonging to an otherwise social species. The artist's academic background in film is evident throughout his works, with a full-frame attention to mood and detail. Among the artist’s other influences: Mexican muralists, comic books, and quite evident below, a mid-19th-century aesthetic.
Conveying elapsed time and bombastic energy, Mitchell Villa’s process involves long strokes and motions that use his entire body. The self-taught painter depicts scenes that range from Biblical allusions to horror to intimate domestic portraits. Works like the triptych "Dinner Party" show the artist’s penchant for controlled cacophony.
Whether in a gallery or on a public wall,