NEW YORK, NY.- Miles McEnery Gallery is presenting an exhibition of paintings by Sebastian Blanck, on view 30 January through 15 March 2025 at 525 West 22nd Street. Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated digital publication featuring an essay by Rebecca Schiffman.

In his new exhibition, “My Heart and Eye Agree,” Blanck reinvigorates the tradition of portraiture through his singular use of light, color, and composition. While his works are rooted in photographs of his wife, muse, and fellow artist, Isca Greenfield-Sanders, Blanck does not aim for complete realism. Instead, he employs lush washes of vibrant color to suggest form and line, softening the boundary between figuration and abstraction.

Light becomes a textural element in his paintings, with ornate shadows adorning his subject’s skin. Her face is often obscured by sunglasses and wide brimmed hats, further limiting any overt emotional facial cues. As such, Blanck’s ability to evoke dramatic shifts in mood and atmosphere relies on his masterful use of color; by immersing his figures in bold, saturated hues of purples, reds, yellows, and blues, he transforms the expressive tenor of each work. His use of color, coupled with the subtle constancy of his subject’s posture and expression highlights the remarkable power of abstraction and color to communicate feeling. The viewer is invited to linger in these quiet moments and bask in Blanck’s emotionally earnest and nostalgic works.

Rebecca Schiffman notes, “Like Alex Katz’s numerous portraits of his wife, Ada, in which the repeated use of a single model reflects an ongoing experience of the world, Blanck’s portrayal of Isca transcends individual identity, evoking a broader emotional resonance that speaks to universal themes of connection, time, and presence.”

Sebastian Blanck (b. 1976 in New Haven, CT) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. In 2001 he was selected as a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome, Italy.

Blanck’s work has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at Michael Reid Gallery, Sydney, Australia; Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson, WY; Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME; Ille Arts, Amagansett, NY; Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO; De Buck Gallery, New York, NY; Dubner Moderne, Lausanne, Switzerland; and Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden.

He has been included in recent group exhibitions at Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden; The Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA; LAUNCH F18, New York, NY; Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; Site:Brooklyn Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Dubner Moderne, Lausanne, Switzerland; De Buck Gallery, New York, NY; Lepore Savage Gallery, New York, NY; Wallspace, New York, NY; Scott White Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Werkstatte, New York, NY; and Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL.

Blanck lives and works in New York, NY.