To read my newest review “Ethan Cohen Gallery Presents an Exhibition of Paul Paiement’s Best” in the Observer, click the link here:

Ethan Cohen Gallery Presents an Exhibition of Paul Paiement’s Best

The artist’s ingenious relief landscape paintings reconcile our boundless natural environment with the finite logic of modern architectural forms.

By Stephen Wozniak

NEXUS 2.0.1
Contemporary Landscape Paintings by Paul Paiement
October 11–November 22, 2024

Ethan Cohen Gallery
251 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 625-1250
https://www.ecfa.com/

EXCERPT

I’ve seen the works of Paul Paiement before on more than a few occasions—in large commercial galleries, hip alternative venues and a few noted museums. For almost a decade, Paiement’s NEXUS series, which he’s been developing and exhibiting in numbered variants (1.0, 2.0, etc.), has intrigued me. It’s a unique crossbreed of machine-made rectilinear relief sculpture and meticulous, hand-rendered, ultrarealistic landscape painting. As I slowly look around the room at Paiement’s NEXUS 2.0.1 and compare the show with my past experiences in the artist’s wondrous will-meets-wilderness worlds, I conclude that these works are among his very best. 

The thirteen acrylic-on-wood-panel pieces in his new exhibition—created from Paiement’s cross-country outdoor painting excursions—touch on some sweeping subjects. With poetry and poise, the artist’s NEXUS works offer a view of both the integration and the reconciliation of practical, high-tech, architectural human inventions with our boundless natural environment. To some, concrete cubes intended to contain humans are an obvious violation of the organic landscape they reside in. However, exploring—and not decrying—that symbiotic relationship is of paramount interest to the artist. “Today, it’s clear that every inch of our planet has been mapped and charted by everyone—from residential housing developers to solar farmers,” Paiement explains plainly. “While it sounds daunting to some, I don’t place judgment on it.” 

#paulpaiement #landscapepainting @ethancohengallery @paulpaiement #painting #art #contemporaryart @observer @oberserverarts #nexus #architecture