Hollywood, Los Angeles
Stephen Truax
Again for the First Time
FernbergerFernberger is delighted to present an exhibition of new paintings by Stephen Truax, the artist’s first solo presentation in Los Angeles, and his debut with the gallery. For the past ten years, Truax has made paintings on-site from direct observation in one-shot sessions using a custom portable setup. Truax captures friends and lovers in repose, focusing especially on his partner, Thomas. Looking to American plein-air painters like Fairfield Porter and Lois Dodd, Truax treats the landscape and the figure with equal directness and brevity. Working in series, he revisits familiar sites and approaches them each time with a fresh painterly perspective, tracking changes in light, atmosphere, and weather over time. For this ongoing endeavor, the exhibition is titled, Again for the first time. With this title, the artist also wryly addresses the fact that this exhibition marks his first since 2016. All works are gouache and pencil on 9 x 12 or 10 x 14 inch watercolor tablets, which enables significant risk-taking and experimentation, and the ability to rework them later in the studio. Truax paints on the beach at Fire Island Pines alongside artist friends, and is informed by the legacy of Paul Thek, Paul Cadmus, Jared French, and Margaret French, who created a fantasy world of idyll and creativity. A small town lake in New Hampshire is another site of special significance for Truax’s paintings. Other locations on Long Island are depicted, as well as Saugatuck, Zipolite, and Berlin. David Colman wrote in Artforum on Truax’s work, “A suite of postcard-like, Alpine-style paintings by Stephen Truax magnified the idea of longing through the revelation that sites in the landscapes depicted places for gay hookups.” Stephen Truax’s work has been exhibited recently at the Flag Art Foundation, the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, and the Long Island Museum. He has organized numerous exhibitions including Toward the Light: Artists for the Ali Forney Center at David Zwirner, Any distance between us at RISD Museum, and Intimacy at Yossi Milo Gallery. His work has been discussed in The New York Times and Artforum, and Fire Island Art: 100 Years. His work is in the public collection of the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College. He earned his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.