Participating Artists: Abraham Storer, Benjamin King, Brian Friedman, Cecelia Rembert, Chris Segedy, Christina Kee, Clintel Steed, Despina Konstantinides, Liz Insogna, Gabbe Grodin, Heather Garland, Ivan Stojakovic, Jaclyn Conley, Joseph Zvejnieks, Laurie Close, Malado Baldwin, Matthew Farina, Meghan Wilbar, Monique Ford, Osamu Kobayashi, Sangram Majumdar, Sarah Hunter, Timothy Cleary, Ülgen Semerci, and William Reed

A full-color catalog with an essay by John Yau will accompany the exhibition.

The Painting Center is proud to present its June 2009 Invitational, 35/25: Twenty-Five Painters Under Thirty-Five. The show presents a group of emerging painters from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, all of whom are working or have exhibited in New York City.

In a time of economic uncertainty, it is almost an act of defiance for an artist to pick up a brush and make a painting. The cost of materials is high, and the rents are even higher, but there is something about the quality of paint that propels these artists to create images that are unique and personal. The 25 selected artists aren’t concerned with questioning, “Is it art?” Instead they ask, “Where do we go from here?”

While curating this show I focused on identifying painters that are stylistically diverse but demonstrate a high level of quality and consistency. Their subjects range from gestural abstractions and tough figuration to fantastical still-lifes and evocative minimalism. Together, these artists are image-makers involved in discovering and exploring their own experiences. Engaged with the processes and issues fundamental to painting, they are also responding to a rapidly changing world. This exhibition asserts that painting is certainly not dead. In fact it is very much alive, and energized by new visions.

Ryan Cobourn, curator