Biography
Aaron Zulpo, originally from Illinois, is a Brooklyn based painter with a BFA degree from Rhode Island School of Design. His work is story-based, and for exhibitions, he usually works around one theme or one story. His recent A Ski Series depicts the complex juxtaposition between the natural and the artificial through using bright colors and patterns. Inspired by films and books, he hopes his work to be both spatially elegant and visually intriguing. Aaron has had solo exhibitions at 1969 Gallery in New York and Visions West Contemporary in Denver. He also has exhibited at the fairs Volta, NY and Pulse Miami Beach with Project: ARTspace. Select group exhibitions include Danese Corey, Patel Gallery, and Freight and Volume.
Artist Statement
For the last four years, I’ve wanted to make large studio landscape paintings. The idea started after thinking about the rich history of American landscape painting and viewing pieces by Albert Beirdstadt and Thomas Cole. The tradition of being an explorer painter is very enticing. You get to travel to new sites and be outside, and more importantly, you are surrounded by your subject matter. Most artists paint what is relatively close to them or self-assembled. Landscape painting, on the other hand, requires you to travel miles or in the case of early American landscape painters across a continent to find a muse. Once they did their studies, they traveled back to their studio to interpret what they experienced. I wanted to have the same experience of being outside, immersed in the subject, and then bringing those studies back into the studio to re-imagine.
For A Ski Series, my muse was skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I picked the activity of skiing because of its familiarity. It was an activity I did often growing up and this allowed me to create a story to drive all the paintings. Stories help me compose the paintings and connect them together. I picked Jackson Hole for its landscapes. The scenery is breathtaking and dramatic with mountains that seem to shoot out of the earth as the National Park surrounds them. For me, there are few places as beautiful as Jackson Hole.
I was in Wyoming during the winter and painted outside, both on and off the ski slopes. I brought the studies back to my studio in Brooklyn, New York where I created landscape paintings with a metaphysical and exuberant feeling that combined the narrative of a family vacation. I worked to create a world where things buzzed and vibrated. Snow became wavy paint lines to capture its ever-changing hues. Sun and stars are shown with such intensity you can see their visible rays. The crispness and brightness of a snow color day are blinding. Trees became my strong shapes that help to divide the picture plane. In all, I created 14 paintings to capture the joyous feeling of being outside and on the slopes.
CV
Born in 1985 in Illinois
Lives and works in Brooklyn
Education
2008 BFA, Rhode Island School of Design
Solo Exhibitions
2019
A Ski Vacation, Visions West Contemporary (Upcoming)
2018
Up and Up, 1969 Gallery, New York
2017
Tales of American Adventures, Visions West Contemporary, Denver
2016
VOLTANY, Project: ARTspace, New York
2012
Voyeurs, Project: ARTspace, New York
Group Exhibitions
2020
Adventure Painting, 1969 Gallery, NY
2019
SWAB, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey CA
Strange Truths, Platform Project SPACE, New York
SPF 32, New York
I ❤️ Paint, Patel, Toronto
Personal Spaces, Danese/Corey, New York
103/14 #1, 1969 Gallery, New York
What Lies Ahead, Visions West Contemporary, Denver
2018
PULSE Miami Beach, Project: ARTspace
The Wacky West, Visions West Contemporary, Bozeman, Montana
Summer of Love, Freight + Volume, New York
Private Practice, Underdonk, Brooklyn
Plus One, Project: ARTspace, New York
Group Show, Serving the People and Milk Studio, New York
2017
PULSE Miami Beach, Project: ARTspace, Miami
September: How was Your Summer, 1969 Gallery, New York
Best Kept Secret, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
Summer in the City: The Brooklyn Show, Paula Estey Gallery, Newburyport, MA
2016
Unstretched, Cheryl Hazan Gallery, New York
PULSE Miami Beach, Project: ARTspace, Miami
Thanksgiving, Muse Art LTD, Hong Kong
FADA: House of Madness, 23rd Annual Watermill Center Arts Benefit & Auction, Watermill, NY
The City, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA
Migration- No More Great Wall, The Woo Space, Beijing
2014
Surburbanites and Urbanites, Andrea Heimer and Aaron Zulpo Hooloon Gallery, Philadelphia
Awards + Residencies
2020 SWAB Yellow Stone
2020 Shandaken Paint School
2019 SWAB Residency
2019 Visions West Contemporary Residency
2018 SWAB Residency
2018 Macedonia Institute Residency
2016 Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) PULSE Picks, Miami
2016 Ace Hotel Artist in Residence, New York
Press
Sam McKinniss on Aaron Zulpo, Painters on Paintings
Thursday Spotlight: Aaron Zulpo, Painter of Narratives, Greenpointers
Suburbanites and Urbanites at Hooloon Art, The Art Blog
Dreamscapes for the 21st Century at the Volta Art Fair, Hyperallergic
Aaron Zulpo, originally from Illinois, is a Brooklyn based painter with a BFA degree from Rhode Island School of Design. His work is story-based, and for exhibitions, he usually works around one theme or one story. His recent A Ski Series depicts the complex juxtaposition between the natural and the artificial through using bright colors and patterns. Inspired by films and books, he hopes his work to be both spatially elegant and visually intriguing. Aaron has had solo exhibitions at 1969 Gallery in New York and Visions West Contemporary in Denver. He also has exhibited at the fairs Volta, NY and Pulse Miami Beach with Project: ARTspace. Select group exhibitions include Danese Corey, Patel Gallery, and Freight and Volume.
Artist Statement
For the last four years, I’ve wanted to make large studio landscape paintings. The idea started after thinking about the rich history of American landscape painting and viewing pieces by Albert Beirdstadt and Thomas Cole. The tradition of being an explorer painter is very enticing. You get to travel to new sites and be outside, and more importantly, you are surrounded by your subject matter. Most artists paint what is relatively close to them or self-assembled. Landscape painting, on the other hand, requires you to travel miles or in the case of early American landscape painters across a continent to find a muse. Once they did their studies, they traveled back to their studio to interpret what they experienced. I wanted to have the same experience of being outside, immersed in the subject, and then bringing those studies back into the studio to re-imagine.
For A Ski Series, my muse was skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I picked the activity of skiing because of its familiarity. It was an activity I did often growing up and this allowed me to create a story to drive all the paintings. Stories help me compose the paintings and connect them together. I picked Jackson Hole for its landscapes. The scenery is breathtaking and dramatic with mountains that seem to shoot out of the earth as the National Park surrounds them. For me, there are few places as beautiful as Jackson Hole.
I was in Wyoming during the winter and painted outside, both on and off the ski slopes. I brought the studies back to my studio in Brooklyn, New York where I created landscape paintings with a metaphysical and exuberant feeling that combined the narrative of a family vacation. I worked to create a world where things buzzed and vibrated. Snow became wavy paint lines to capture its ever-changing hues. Sun and stars are shown with such intensity you can see their visible rays. The crispness and brightness of a snow color day are blinding. Trees became my strong shapes that help to divide the picture plane. In all, I created 14 paintings to capture the joyous feeling of being outside and on the slopes.
CV
Born in 1985 in Illinois
Lives and works in Brooklyn
Education
2008 BFA, Rhode Island School of Design
Solo Exhibitions
2019
A Ski Vacation, Visions West Contemporary (Upcoming)
2018
Up and Up, 1969 Gallery, New York
2017
Tales of American Adventures, Visions West Contemporary, Denver
2016
VOLTANY, Project: ARTspace, New York
2012
Voyeurs, Project: ARTspace, New York
Group Exhibitions
2020
Adventure Painting, 1969 Gallery, NY
2019
SWAB, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey CA
Strange Truths, Platform Project SPACE, New York
SPF 32, New York
I ❤️ Paint, Patel, Toronto
Personal Spaces, Danese/Corey, New York
103/14 #1, 1969 Gallery, New York
What Lies Ahead, Visions West Contemporary, Denver
2018
PULSE Miami Beach, Project: ARTspace
The Wacky West, Visions West Contemporary, Bozeman, Montana
Summer of Love, Freight + Volume, New York
Private Practice, Underdonk, Brooklyn
Plus One, Project: ARTspace, New York
Group Show, Serving the People and Milk Studio, New York
2017
PULSE Miami Beach, Project: ARTspace, Miami
September: How was Your Summer, 1969 Gallery, New York
Best Kept Secret, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
Summer in the City: The Brooklyn Show, Paula Estey Gallery, Newburyport, MA
2016
Unstretched, Cheryl Hazan Gallery, New York
PULSE Miami Beach, Project: ARTspace, Miami
Thanksgiving, Muse Art LTD, Hong Kong
FADA: House of Madness, 23rd Annual Watermill Center Arts Benefit & Auction, Watermill, NY
The City, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA
Migration- No More Great Wall, The Woo Space, Beijing
2014
Surburbanites and Urbanites, Andrea Heimer and Aaron Zulpo Hooloon Gallery, Philadelphia
Awards + Residencies
2020 SWAB Yellow Stone
2020 Shandaken Paint School
2019 SWAB Residency
2019 Visions West Contemporary Residency
2018 SWAB Residency
2018 Macedonia Institute Residency
2016 Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) PULSE Picks, Miami
2016 Ace Hotel Artist in Residence, New York
Press
Sam McKinniss on Aaron Zulpo, Painters on Paintings
Thursday Spotlight: Aaron Zulpo, Painter of Narratives, Greenpointers
Suburbanites and Urbanites at Hooloon Art, The Art Blog
Dreamscapes for the 21st Century at the Volta Art Fair, Hyperallergic