The overarching theme in Dylan Hurwitz's work is the search for community and connection – in the lives of queer people in particular – and the rituals, places and landscapes that foster this. His subject matter is drawn from his everyday life, and he paints from observation, and memory.
The exhibition features paintings in both large and small formats. Dylan Hurwitz created these small works last summer outdoors at Fort Tilden in NYC and Boy Beach in Provincetown. They were the starting point for the large paintings in the exhibition, which were created over the last few months in his studio in New York.
The paintings offer fragmented glimpses of intimate scenes, inviting the viewer to fill in missing details. Heightened colors and cropping blur the boundaries between body and landscape, between viewer and pictorial object, and between memory, fantasy and reality. The title of the exhibitions refers to this.
The resulting works oscillate between landscape, figure, and abstraction. Segments of figures transform into undulating dunes, and hair takes on the semblance of grass, intermingling with the landscape in a fluid interchange.
"Upon initial viewing, it is not immediately apparent that the landscapes are queer or nudist spaces. This is a nod to the relative remoteness and hiddenness of both beaches, and their function as queer enclaves - raising questions around legibility and visibility. As much as the paintings reference the history of landscape painting and are about the impossibility of capturing rapidly changing light, they are informed by the desire to hold onto and preserve these spaces, and these moments of closeness. The decision to paint in these gathering spots posits the act of painting as a means of connection and touch." - Dylan Hurwitz
The exhibition features paintings in both large and small formats. Dylan Hurwitz created these small works last summer outdoors at Fort Tilden in NYC and Boy Beach in Provincetown. They were the starting point for the large paintings in the exhibition, which were created over the last few months in his studio in New York.
The paintings offer fragmented glimpses of intimate scenes, inviting the viewer to fill in missing details. Heightened colors and cropping blur the boundaries between body and landscape, between viewer and pictorial object, and between memory, fantasy and reality. The title of the exhibitions refers to this.
The resulting works oscillate between landscape, figure, and abstraction. Segments of figures transform into undulating dunes, and hair takes on the semblance of grass, intermingling with the landscape in a fluid interchange.
"Upon initial viewing, it is not immediately apparent that the landscapes are queer or nudist spaces. This is a nod to the relative remoteness and hiddenness of both beaches, and their function as queer enclaves - raising questions around legibility and visibility. As much as the paintings reference the history of landscape painting and are about the impossibility of capturing rapidly changing light, they are informed by the desire to hold onto and preserve these spaces, and these moments of closeness. The decision to paint in these gathering spots posits the act of painting as a means of connection and touch." - Dylan Hurwitz