Painters' Painters

Featured artists: Sam Bornstein, Nik Cho, Tavin Davis, Rob Davis, Dana DeGulio, Kevin Ford, Dana Frankfort, April Gornik, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, Richard Tinkler, Emma White and Kevin Wolff

SECRIST | BEACH is pleased to announce Painters' Painters, a curated summer exhibition featuring artists whose work is held in high esteem within the discourse of contemporary painting. This exhibition unites artists not by subject matter or an overarching idea, but by medium — presenting an opportunity to witness a sustained commitment to the act of painting itself, championing fluency and fidelity.

By removing the context of a singular curatorial thesis, the works presented tell a story about the enduring relationship between artists and to the ever-evolving language of painting itself. The resulting dialogue creates a dynamic synthesis between how art is made, for whom it is made, and why.

The twelve artists in Painters' Painters were selected by the gallery as exemplars of what we most admire in this medium. Just as importantly, they are artists who admire one another's work. While the idea of a “painter's painter" is inherently subjective - and at times polarizing - the defining quality shared by these artists is an intuitive command of the medium. Their work reflects not only technical fluency, but also an artistic sensibility that gives each painting a distinct presence and unmistakable authenticity.

Embedded within the exhibition is the often private ecology of influence that defines artistic practice. Painters look relentlessly at other painters: studying decisions, testing assumptions, tracing formal problems across generations, and discovering unexpected solutions. Admiration and competition, affinity and resistance, coexist within this process. Looking becomes a form of research as much as a catalyst for invention, situating each new painting within an ongoing conversation that is at once historical and contemporary.

The works in Painters' Painters span a broad range of subjects, ideas, and methodologies, reflecting the expansive terrain of painting today.  Photorealist works appear alongside landscapes, still lifes, abstractions, and narrative paintings, demonstrating that the language of painting is neither singular nor stable, but continually recalibrated through material decisions, perceptual experience, and individual vision. Together, these works offer a rich visual vocabulary through which to consider not only painting's capacity to communicate, but also the many ways artists employ its formal language to encode meaning and invite interpretation. This is an occasion to consider painting not as a unified position, but as a plurality of practices that remain deeply invested in the possibilities of the medium.

Throughout the exhibition, we will be taking a closer look into each artist’s studio practice, exploring their inspirations, frustrations, aesthetic philosophies and the artists they consider "painters' painters." These conversations will be published on our website, culminating in a full-color exhibition catalogue to be released later this summer.