On today's A Portfolio to kick off the week, we look at a young painter we just found in an epic session of exploration and research, Aaron Feltman.
Aaron Feltman is a recent graduate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with a BFA in painting. In the summer of 2019, he participated in the Yale Norfolk Summer Residency alongside 24 rising seniors from art schools across the country. He is currently based in Huntington, New York.
In his work, Aaron explores themes of desire that often get confronted by a combating force of repression. Lush layers of vibrating colors attract a viewer and force them to engage with the reality of the figure depicted. An interplay of inventive color with a western-rationalized body produces a dichotomy between a desire for freedom and a longing for stability in an ever-changing world. Thus, Aaron finds inspiration for his figures from a Western canon, often quoting specific paintings from art history and redefining them in relation to his time and personal experiences of gender and sexuality. He also draws inspiration from the irrational color worlds of Bonnard and the geometrically defined compositions of Balthus and Arshille Gorky’s early figure paintings. In examining where these formal concerns intersect, Aaron begins to construct worlds of his own that make this psychological friction visible.
