Abigail Drapkin

Among Verticals, 2023 - 2025​​​

I first saw the paintings Plans pars couleurs and Mme Kupka Among Verticals by Frantisek Kupka at the Centre Pompidou while studying abroad in France in 2011. I was fascinated by the vertical divisions, the way the figure seemed embedded in layers of light, like stained glass or an x-ray. Since then, my work has leaned towards figuration but frequently brushes with abstraction through movements of light, overlapping forms, and structures formed by the grids, armatures, and measuring marks of the drawing and painting process. In my current work, I find patterns and webs in which colors become more vivid or muted, submerging the figure.

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Many of my compositions reference paintings by Kupka, Klimt, Bonnard, Vuillard, Munch, Diebenkorn and the long history of men painting women. My works subvert the male gaze: Instead of a suggestive glimpse, a male fantasy of a woman’s private moments, I paint myself and my friends, our awkwardness, stillness, lived experiences, dreams, and memories. My figures dissolve into geometries, the clarity of exterior forms disappearing to reveal the complexity of their inner lives. 

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