Susan Powell Fine Art | 5/2-5/31 | Madison, CT

City Color

Susan Powell Fine Art presents new New York City scenes by Vincent Giaranno

Vincent Giarrano started painting New York City scenes around 25 years ago. Although Giarrano was living in Connecticut by then, he found he needed the distance to tap into the city as a source of artistic inspiration.

“Living in the city day after day, it changes how you relate to it and how you see,” says Giarrano, who spent a decade after college in New York. “It’s great I had those experiences but not living there day in and day out, you can really feel the energy, and get excited and inspired by it. It also allows you to see it objectively, which is really important for me.”

Corner in Greenwich Village, oil, 24 x 36"

A two-hour train ride away, Giarrano goes down to the city a couple times a month, sometimes alone but often with a model who will pose for the figurative aspect of his urban street scenes. Although Giarrano used to work primarily from plein air sketches, he enjoys a greater sense of freedom—and control—working from photographs back in the studio.

“I found, as I developed, that the important thing was to focus on the painting because that was what was going to be on the wall in the end,” says Giarrano. “Either way that you paint, you have to make the painting work, and that depends on the things you change, that you add or subtract, and the concepts you bring to the painting. [Working from photographs] gives me so many more options of ways to make a painting work.”

Bicycle in SoHo, oil, 18 x 24"

Many of Giarrano’s paintings are set in lower Manhattan, including SoHo and the East and West Village, where the classical and contemporary, the vibrant and the drab, the posh and gritty, bump right up against each other, a combination the artist finds irresistible.

Bicycle in SoHo is a prime example. Giarrano explains, “In SoHo, you have these great facades that have been painted over in all these different colors…then the bicycle had this great chipped paint. I love being able to capture the tactile nature of things like that. Then there are these storefront windows that are almost like a stage, presenting something colorful and lush, contrasting with the architecture.”

In Green Façade in Manhattan,a woman stands insouciantly in front of a retro Lower East Side restaurant with porthole windows. A coffee cup dangles from the grasp of her painted nails, and a cigarette from her lips. “I love her expression, her body language and just her presence,” says Giarrano. “It’s like you have the strength of the architecture and the strength of her personality and I think it’s such a big punch…it’s got power.”

Green Facade in Manhattan, oil, 18 x 24"

The figure in Black Doorway is a woman Giarrano has worked with before, but he prefers not to know too much about his models to preserve a sense of mystery, which this high-heeled woman, dressed in black and furtively letting herself into the dark gray building, exudes. “I really identify with women,” says Giarrano, “I have a lot of respect for them, for their clothing and their range of emotion, and how they express themselves.”

Black Doorway, oil, 24 x 36"

Giarrano is also drawn to youth culture. It conjures his own memories of being young in New York. “There’s something about young people coming to the city…they’re bringing new ideas and expressing themselves. A lot of times I feel like what I’m painting is my own experience…just being a young person making my way there. I never seem to tire of it,” Giarrano says of his subject matter. “I go to the city and I’m inspired by different things and try to give myself new experiences. You’re always surprised by what you see in the city.”

Corner in Greenwich Village depicts a blood-red building intensified by its black trim, gold accents and a recent rain—a street corner that Giarrano has always been attracted to. Greenwich Village Cigar Storeis another saturated concentration of color and visual information. “I love a dense subject,” he says. “When something is a lot of things…they become shapes, almost jewel-like, and so appealing and inviting. That’s the magic of paint.”

Subway Nocturne, oil, 18 x 24"

Perhaps most critical for Giarrano is that his scenes capture real-life moments that feel authentic. “I knew that what I painted about had to be about truth,” he says. “Not making art about art, so convoluted and clever it’s ridiculous. I wanted it to be sincere, something people could relate to. It’s really about life and the human experience, and what it’s like to be walking around...living in the moment and experiencing the energy of the city.”