People Painting

Artist Gabe Duarte talks about reconnecting with their practice in the context of returning to their hometown, their diverse array of technical and mental approaches drawing, community in relation to observation, and more.Gabe Duarte:“My practice is driven by observing objects that are lost, forgotten and the anonymous actions that left them where and how they were found. I've been questioning what separates what is formally considered monumental from the mundane and how frequently the physical manifestations of both end up intersecting. This interest originated from believing that there is a personal and unshakeable connection, that adds constantly to the collective history of the materials that surround us. By paying close attention to day to day objects and the circumstances that define these meetings, we're capable of defining new indicators in our memory, knowledge, and by relativity, identity. Consequently, a more realistic, fair and accessible system of values built in relation to materials, objects, places and aesthetics is collectively formed, making it equally suitable to an artistic context that is inclusive and speaks directly to community. For this reason, my work has become increasingly dependent on cooperative research, giving form and image to discarded visual records of community and social collectivity.My representation of dissociated movements and objects has lately extended to include references to text and images found in online platforms that are seen as of little intellectual value, but that in sharing gain a new extremely personal origin and quality. I have been interested in breaking apart terminology and the aesthetics that surround the art world. The ones capable of separating a handwritten street sign from an artist's instagram caption. I imaginarily and playfully delineate the relationships between these settings, objects, writings and images, always carefully considering the time and space between themselves and those who have or may come to meet them. The visual inspiration is drawn from the structures, shapes and patterns that belong to these situations and places, physically or mentally delineated. Painting and drawing make it possible for me to understand and record these themes, simultaneously challenging its traditional technical aspects. Additionally, I use sculptural and installation methods that ensure that the works are capable of being observed and encountered sensorially from unexpected angles and perspectives.”Gabe Duarte was born in 2002 in Guimarães, where they grew up until they were 15, when their family moved to London, England. There Gabe completed in 2023 their degree in Fine Art: Drawing at UAL, Camberwell College of Arts. Gabe has been part of and organized several group exhibition projects in London. Over the past year, they have worked closely with Portuguese cultural groups such as CAAA (Center for Art and Architecture Affairs) and the Madrôa Collective, both in Guimarães.Gabe's Instagram: @ultratape_

Artist Samantha Jackson talks about how her work addresses what she terms “stoppages,” the holistic aspirations of her multidisciplinary practice, making work unconditionally, and more.Samantha's work is a gestural exploration of everyday life and the relationships that emerge between painting, material and site through making. She paints on found materials using water based pigments that allow the image to saturate into the fabric of the painting itself by pooling, staining, and sinking them into the surface of the work. She uses her phone camera as an extension of her body to capture compositions that erode hierarchies of sight and result in fleeting, fragmented paintings that play with the modern nature of images in our habitual lived experiences.Believing that painting is a shared, lived experience rather than a singular event - her work rewards long looking as a way of fostering intimacy and connection with one another, particularly in the face of wider bureaucratic harm.Samantha graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2023 and the Royal College of Art in 2024.Samantha's work: samanthamarionjackson.comSamantha's Instagram: @sam_jacksonart

Artist Rita Fernández talks about making unforgiving paintings, leaning into instinctual forms, how she approaches self-portraiture, and much more.Rita Fernández (b. 1999), is a Mexican artist graduated from the Royal College of Art (MA: Painting). She has a BA in Philosophy from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a background in the film industry.Her work is an exploration of self-portraiture and its limits. Through the dissection of personal experiences and striking images gathered from memories, dreams and daily life, her work is a constant inquiry about the self and what constitutes an identity. Fernández likes to consider her practice as a matrix of self-reflection and representation. Her philosophical formation plays an important role in the way she conceives and approaches the creation of her artwork. Rita's work: www.ritafernandez.orgRita's Instagram: @sr.rita.fernandez

Artist Jack Hilton talks about leading with color, how failure begets momentum, the literary touchpoints that have been informing his practice, and much more.Jack Hilton, b.1996, is a London-based painter.Hilton's work explores history, literature and mythology. Often a real historical episode is presented like a myth or biblical drama, riffing on the long tradition of History Painting. Subjects vary from the Tower of Babel to Bayeux Tapestry ships on fire. In the process Hilton aims to give a fresh sense of emotional resonance or comedy to these scenes.Hilton uses these intense narratives as a leaping-off point for a more formal exploration of colour and pattern-making. He used figuration in a heraldic, patchwork kind of way, with large parts of the canvas blocked out by flat colour, interrupted by layered shapes. In art as in life, what you take out is sometimes more important than what you put in.Following a degree in English Literature at the University of Sussex, Hilton began painting professionally in 2020. He has been part of many group exhibitions including with Felt Collections (London) and Reuter Bausch (Luxembourg). His first solo show came in the winter of 2023 at The Table, Hay-on-Wye followed by another at Galleriet Agnes in Copenhagen in summer 2024.Hilton comes from a family of painters. His grandparents were the acclaimed St Ives artists Rose and Roger Hilton.Jack's work: jackhilton.co.ukJack's Instagram: @jackhilton_art

Artist Toby Rainbird talks about fluidity in painting, how a recent stint in jury duty has informed his work, embracing practice parameters, and much more.Toby Rainbird (b. 1994, Jersey, C.I.) is a British artist and curator based in London. He recently completed an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, where he was awarded the university's prestigious Hine Painting Prize. In 2016, he graduated with First-Class Honours in Fine Art from Bath Spa University, receiving the Outstanding Achievement in Fine Art Award. Rainbird has exhibited extensively across London, the UK, and internationally in Japan, Germany, and Canada. He is currently the recipient of the University of Brighton's Freelands Fellowship.Toby's work: tobyrainbird.comToby's Instagram: @toby_rainbird_art

Artist Matthew Gilbert talks about trusting and challenging their impulses, how film informs their process, place in relation to depicting emotion, and much more. Matthew Gilbert (b. 1997, Brooklyn, NY) is a sculptor and fiber artist based in New York's Hudson Valley. Their pictorial rugs depict an abandoned world that combines medieval architecture with rural American iconography. Tragically fatal scenes highlight the impact of the car-centric infrastructure in the United States. A solitary pick-up truck roves between crumbling fortresses and out of service power lines, searching for life among re-imagined ruins. Highways are carved into mountain ridges as forest fire smoke hangs in the air. A tornado rips through a wind turbine farm, destroying our feeble attempts at sustainable energy. A tree grows through a deserted structure from the Dark Ages only for its limbs to be used for a tire swing.  By placing modern symbols within Gothic wreckage, the images collapse the timeline of human history, arguing that we as a species are a mere blip in the lifespan of Earth. Long after we make this planet uninhabitable for our species, nature will continue to evolve and adapt. Using this backdrop, Gilbert explores the isolating implications of living in a country built for motorized vehicles. The cartoonish quality of the work suggests an irreverence to the otherwise catastrophic subject matter, adding a comedic undertone. A warning with a punchline. Matthew's work: matthewgilbert.xyz Matthew's Instagram: @matthewgilbart

Artist Raina Seung Eun Jung talks about gatherings as collective mark making, balancing risk and decisiveness in the studio, what it means to record through painting, and much more. Raina Seung Eun Jung (b. 1995, Seoul, Korea) is a London-based artist who works with diverse mediums such as traditional Korean paper, silk, and metal for surfaces and uses oil, gouache, and ink. Jung is interested in discovering the coexistence of heterogeneous things while pursuing what she wants to record. Ultimately, she aims to communicate her observations of the beauty of natural coexistence in the world and translate them into her visual language. Recently, she has focused on discovering new combinations, exploring the contemporary landscape where technology has become frequent in our lives but acknowledging that certain things never change, and expressing it through primitive actions. By recording her discoveries through materials with history and drawing the scenery that occurs every moment, she hopes to engage society in her vision while asking what matters and what to care about.  Raina's work: rainaseungeunjung.com Raina's Instagram: @workrainawork

Artist Ruba Nadar talks about navigating shifts in self-perception as a former athlete, the complexities of autobiographical painting, how their relationship to collected objects informs their studio rhythm, and much more. Ruba Nadar (b.1998) is a painter based in London, UK. Their practice is guided by questions of tenderness, eroticism, and Arab-ness. By dissecting and reassembling fragments from their own archive of photographs and research, they explore characters through textures in their work. Ruba's work: https://www.rubanadar.co.uk/ Ruba's Instagram: @ruba.nadar

Ahead of his MA degree show, artist Jonathan Tignor talks about his recent interest in visual binaries, finding a balance between research and intuition, the life cycles of paintings, and much more. Jonathan Tignor's (b. 1997, Dallas TX) paintings betray a concern with narrative. However, this is a conflation of his interests in imagery and tension. Stories are built around tension, and Tignor uses this as the building material in his paintings. Consequently, the narratives that then unfold are never clear. They simmer in ambiguity and allow space for the creative act within the processes of looking and interpretation. Tignor's paintings ask viewers to linger with the strangeness of what's before them and question the role of their viewership through images that integrate themes like violence and precarity. There is a desire to look, a desire to look away, and a persistent wish to see something you shouldn't. Tignor is a London-based artist originally from Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Colorado College with a BA in Creative Writing in 2019, and went on to receive a Post-Baccalaureate in Studio Art at the Burren College of Art in 2023, and a MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2024. • Jonathan's work: https://www.jonathantignor.com/ • Jonathan's Instagram: @jtig.art

On this episode of People Painting, the artist Leroy Winter talks with Connor about about his early interest in illustration, searching for the balance between control and letting go in the studio, the lineage of the subject matter that appears in his first solo show, and much more. Leroy Winter is a painter from San Antonio, Texas, currently based in Chicago, Illinois. Leroy graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in December 2021, obtaining his Bachelors of Fine Art. He has shown in a number of group shows from 2019 to 2021. In July of 2022, he presented his first solo exhibition, Mirage, at Martha's Contemporary in Austin, Texas. Fascinated by the prominence of mythmaking in American culture, Leroy investigates symbols and iconography closely tied to narratives of the Western frontier and seeks to unearth the significance of these narratives beyond their precarious and hollow qualities. In his recent paintings, Leroy focuses on creatures that we associate with the Frontier, and seeks to portray them as spectral onlookers of the ceaseless expanse of settlers. The ghostly appearance of the creatures portrayed in these paintings, manifesting as apparitions in the distance, aim to provoke the viewer to question their relationship with nature and, more specifically, to challenge the narratives that have been projected on the land that they inhabit. • Leroy's work: https://leroywinter.com/ • Leroy's Instagram: @leroy__w For complete show notes, including links to all artists/works referenced on this episode, visit peoplepaintingpodcast.com If you'd like to support this show, you may do so here. Thank you for listening!

On this episode of People Painting, the artist Anya Rosen talks with Connor about about the role of literature in her creative process, the meaning of home in the context of her nomadic lifestyle, and balancing her multidisciplinary practice with her work in agriculture. Anya Rosen (b. 1989) is an artist currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Inspired by the fraught relationship between humanity and natural resources, Anya has spent the past six years working on farms across the eastern coast of the United States. Anya has participated in artist residency programs in Iceland and Colombia, at Breckenridge Creative Arts in Colorado, Vermont Studio Center, and most recently at Trestle Gallery & Art Space in Brooklyn, NY. She recently showed work in "In The Flesh", a two-person show curated by Castellain Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, and has also exhibited work in the Pensacola Museum of Art, Brooklyn Art Cluster, Site:Brooklyn, Trestle Gallery, at While Supplies Last in Seattle, Washington, and at the Cementa Festival in Kandos, Australia. She has been featured in several publications including ArtMaze Magazine, Floorr Magazine, Ain't Bad, Matador Review, and Friend of the Artist. • Anya's work: https://www.anyarosen.com/ • Anya's Instagram: @wannabeanya For complete show notes, including links to all artists/works referenced on this episode, visit peoplepaintingpodcast.com If you'd like to support this show, you may do so here. Thank you for listening!

On this episode of People Painting, the artist and educator Clara Nulty talks with Connor about her approach to teaching, her relationship to watercolor, the balance between spontaneity and intention in some of her recent works, and much more. Born and raised in New York, Nulty now lives and works in Louisville, CO. Nulty completed her MFA in Painting at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in May 2021. She also holds a BA in Studio Art from Carleton College in Northfield, MN, where she graduated magna cum laude in 2014. She currently teaches painting and drawing at Front Range Community College and Colorado State University. She has shown at galleries across the United States. Recently her work has been featured in exhibitions at Ortega y Gasset in Brooklyn, NY, Site: Brooklyn in Brooklyn, NY, the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Smith House in Bloomfield Hills, MI, Alluvium Gallery in Grand Rapids, MI, and D'Art Gallery in Denver, CO in a show curated by Dr. Gwen Chanzit. In 2022, Clara Nulty will have two solo exhibitions at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center in Birmingham, MI and Firehouse Art Center in Longmont, CO. • Clara's work: http://www.claranulty.com/ • Clara's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claranultyart/ For complete show notes, including links to all artists/works referenced on this episode, visit peoplepaintingpodcast.com If you'd like to support this show, you may do so here. Thank you for listening!

On this episode of People Painting, the artist Joel Seow talks with Connor ahead of his final weeks at RISD about everything from his early love of dinosaur illustrations to the recent introduction of egg tempera to his practice. Joel is an artist from Singapore who is currently pursuing his undergraduate degree in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design. Approaching representational painting with a contemporary sensibility, he is concerned with ideas surrounding autobiography and personal symbolism, the tension between intimacy and urban isolation, and how one's memory and state of mind interact with familiar spaces. His works have been featured in exhibitions in both Singapore and the United States. • Joel's work and bio: https://joelseow.myportfolio.com/ • Joel's Instagram: @fakeseow For complete show notes, including links to all artists/works referenced on this episode, visit peoplepaintingpodcast.com. If you'd like to support this show, you may do so here. Thank you for listening!