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.
Recent Shows and/or Exhibitions
2023
Joshua Tree, Taymour Grahne Project, Online Exhibition
2022
Untitled Miami Beach, 1969 Gallery, Miami
2020
Interiors: hello from the living room, 1969 Gallery, NY
Adventure Painting, 1969 Gallery, NY
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.
Recent Shows and/or Exhibitions
2023
Joshua Tree, Taymour Grahne Project, Online Exhibition
2022
Untitled Miami Beach, 1969 Gallery, Miami
2020
Interiors: hello from the living room, 1969 Gallery, NY
Adventure Painting, 1969 Gallery, NY