J. CARINO (b. 1988)
Carino, ‘Endings’, 2024
Carino’s enchanting landscapes embrace queer identity. In his fantastical, fluid paintings, peaceful meadows and towering peaks offer a sanctuary for the human form, providing alternatives to heteronormative narratives surrounding desire and intimacy. Carino’s current solo exhibition, “56,” presents a new series of paintings created during his residency at PM/AM in London, continuing his exploration of queer expression.
One standout work from the show, The Last Raven (2024), depicts male nude figures amid lush grass and wildflowers. Their bodies appear in a state of serene relaxation, highlighted with bright pops of orange and purple that echo the flora surrounding them. Drawing inspiration from both personal and idealized representations of the body, Carino’s paintings present queerness in a natural context, as an organic part of the human experience.
CLAUDIA KEEP (b. 1993)
Claudia Keep, ‘October 22nd, 10:18 PM, Orange Slices After Dinner’, 2024, Galerie Marguo
Whether it’s zoning out on a long flight or losing hours to social media, these days, distraction reigns. In such conditions, it’s easy to let the quotidian details slip by unnoticed, but American painter Claudia Keep grasps onto them masterfully.
In small-scale oil-on-panel paintings built up from loose, chunky brushstrokes, Keep captures the ephemera of daily life, making them precious through close attention. “Somehow, Somewhere, Someway,” her upcoming show at Galerie Marguo in Paris, features works that are titled with timestamps, amounting to a diaristic record of her existence. July 24th at 10:01 a.m.: a cozy scene in a wallpapered bedroom, where the rumpled white sheets seemed to beckon her back to bed. July 30th at 6:43 p.m.: sunlight glinting like sequins on the surface of a vast expanse of water.
SULEMAN KHILJI (b. 1985)
Suleman Khilji, ‘Mnemonic Spaces (Regent’s Park)’, 2024, Jhaveri Contemporary
When Suleman Khilji first visited Paris in 2009, a teacher encouraged him to take a close look at a Mark Rothko painting to figure out how it was made. It was a fateful interaction, as Khilji ended up taking inspiration from Rothko’s carefully layered oil paint color fields to create his hazy, figurative paintings on linen. The Pakistani artist depicts his subjects head-on in earthy pigments that recall the arid landscapes of Balochistan, where he grew up.
Now based in London, Khilji portrays people from TikTok, photos, or real-life encounters, superimposing them against imagined or remembered backgrounds. In paintings featured in “Parallel,” a recent online show with Jhaveri Contemporary, a man in sunglasses crouches with a gun, a woman looks out at the viewer from a rocky outcrop, and another sways against an undefined background. Each painting turns its subject into a mysterious character, the gravitational center of their own world.
NELLIE JONSSON (b. 1992)
Nellie Jonsson, ‘Princess cake’, 2023, QB Gallery
A princess cake, a pack of cigarettes, a television airing a scene from Twin Peaks—ceramist Nellie Jonsson transforms these everyday mementos into petite clay sculptures. Each ceramic is molded imperfectly and painted with bright glazes, evoking a sense of wonder and whimsy, as if Jonsson plucked the items from a childhood memory. The 32-year-old artist is represented by Oslo’s QB Gallery, which is currently exhibiting her work at Foundations, Artsy’s online fair for emerging art.
In an interview with Vogue Scandinavia, Jonsson described her practice as unpredictable and exciting, emphasizing the role that chance and instinct play in her work. “With ceramics, it’s much like developing photos. Take an analogue photo, for instance: You don’t know what it will look like until you develop the film,” she said. “I feel like it’s the same with ceramics; sometimes it’s going to be a surprise.”
DEMETRIUS WILSON (b. 1996)
Demetrius Wilson, ‘Never Be the Same Again’, 2024, Half Gallery
A recent graduate of Hunter College’s MFA program in painting, American artist Demetrius Wilson tackles big ideas in abstract gestures. His practice investigates intertwined concepts of truth, beauty, and violence, and whether they exist independently from humankind. In “BAM!,” his current solo show at Half Gallery, Wilson’s layered abstractions evoke forces of nature, like a roaring fire in Eternity of Dust or a surging tidal wave in Never Be the Same Again (both 2024).
Wilson’s abstractions represent a departure from his earlier figurative mode. “I felt like I was giving away too much,” he has said of his previous work, which he described as “a bit didactic.” Through his use of abstraction, the artist symbolically distances himself from the canvases, opening them up as laboratories for ideas and interpretation.
Written by Isabelle Sakelaris
Source: Artsy