Vincent Giarrano “New York City Women”

Gallery Henoch

[Image: Vincent Giarrano "Nom Wah Tea Parlor" Oil on Canvas, 24 x 36 in.]

This event has ended.

Gallery Henoch presents “New York City Women,” a solo show of paintings by Vincent Giarrano.

In a series of modest sized paintings, Vincent Giarrano records a group of young women who have made New York City their home. Many of his subjects are involved in the clothing industry as fashion designers, models, and provocateurs. Like a reporter, Giarrano paints the details that surround their everyday lives, from postcard-laden walls of studio apartments to local hangouts. In doing so he documents their burgeoning independence and self-reliance. It is a picture of youth who endeavor to realize their dreams and develop their identities in the backdrop of New York City.

New York City also figures as a character in Giarrano’s paintings, especially the streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side and SoHo. Painting his models and their surroundings with the same generous attention to detail, Giarrano suggests a symbiotic relationship between his subjects and the city-the distinctive city streets and interiors echo the individuality of his subjects, and vice versa. For the artist, his subjects are symbolic of how the metropolis is continually evolving in its ideas and its physicality.

In describing his practice Giarrano noted: “Robert Henri wrote about the artist functioning as a journalist. That’s something that resonates with me. I see great beauty and interest in contemporary life, especially with people that live very differently than myself. I feel like I can see them more objectively, like an impartial journalist.”

On the opening night only Giarrano will offer 9 micro-paintings, painted on 2.5” x 3.5” playing cards. Each will be priced at $200. The spirit of these pieces is to afford some kinship to the aspiring artist, designer and collector who are beginning to establish themselves in NYC.