Gramercy Studio 2011

Curator: Immediately, I’m struck by this peculiar feeling of timelessness coexisting with a kind of edgy present moment. Editor: That’s precisely the magic, isn’t it? Nelson Shanks painted this in 2011, calling it “Gramercy Studio.” Oil paint on linen—a contemporary genre painting, really, yet steeped in academic tradition. I'd describe it as Shanks doing Realism. Curator: I see the artist’s model is lounging amidst canvases and art supplies in what is presumably their personal atelier, or maybe a meticulously arranged, almost theatrical tableau… Is that a soda can I see near her feet, next to what seems to be a color palette? Editor: Indeed! The careful detail brings attention to the materials within the studio space. Shanks wants you to notice the raw building blocks. Take, for instance, that sculptural figure by the window—note how even it becomes another material to work with in this composition. Curator: That gilt figure is so fascinating – with a slightly weary expression; as if she has been watching the ebb and flow of creativity for centuries. Editor: Yes! Note the interplay between classical art history, kitsch, and mass-produced beverage. Curator: And she looks very cozy—even the plaster angel seems to enjoy her fluffy robe! What strikes me is the contrast between the opulence of the interiors, the richness of textures and materials and the almost blasé attitude of the sitter, casually posing without pretension or even stockings for that matter. I think she finds peace here. Editor: Consider how those various surfaces and details serve less to signify wealth and instead speak to the labor that has constructed art. There’s labor embedded in the art objects on the shelf and more being enacted. And how are we meant to interpret that can of soda? Is that a mark of mass consumption that pulls down any reading of pure decadence or elevated "fine art" here? Curator: Absolutely, maybe it grounds the painting in reality, like a painter’s wink—to show us beauty does not necessarily equate perfection or purity. Or pretentiousness. Editor: A testament to his acute material sensibility, I think. To see not just the figure or the scene but what it all represents through his process as he translates it through paint. It leaves me feeling quite optimistic about how tradition continues to shape what painting can still become. Curator: Me too. I’m touched to witness such fleeting and subtle beauty arise from very deliberate construction.