52 CRITICAL PAINTERS

52 Critical Painters highlights artists pushing the practice of painting forward. Artists who have developed a voice, carved out a corner, imagined a vision, or set themselves apart.

Kevin Smith Kevin Smith

Anya Roberts-Toney

Anya Roberts-Toney is a painter of still lives, apparitions, feminine mystique, and cultural contradictions.

Read More
Kevin Smith Kevin Smith

Howard Fonda

Portland artist Howard Fonda might best be descirbed as a painter-philosopher who uses his painting practice to contemplate themes of love, death, existence, and humanity.

Read More
Kevin Smith Kevin Smith

David Joel Kitcher

David Joel Kitcher uses intuitive mark making to construct abstract paintings, watching them unfold with each decision he makes.

Read More
Kevin Smith Kevin Smith

Dan Gluibizzi

Dan Gluibizzi makes work that recontextualizes internet photography into chromatic groupings of anonymous bodies and faces.

Read More
Kevin Smith Kevin Smith

Wokeface

After spending 12 years as a freelance graphic designer, Wokeface began making art for herself and displaying it on the streets of Portland. Her paintings are beacons of joy in these dark times with her remarkably simple symbol of a serene looking smiley face with a wide open third eye.

Read More
Kevin Smith Kevin Smith

Jeremy Okai Davis

Jeremy Okai Davis makes paintings that adroitly mix elements of abstraction and figuration. The skintones of his figures are alive with spots of intense color that are a testament to optical color mixing.

Read More
Kevin Smith Kevin Smith

Ralph Pugay

Ralph Pugay makes paintings that trade in archetypes, uncomfortable humor, and weird space.

Read More
Kevin Smith Kevin Smith

Calvin Ross Carl

Calvin Ross Carl makes paintings that look like thick ropes of paint methodically built into graphically flat images of words or simple icons.

Read More