7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Ray Smith (American, b.1959)

Born in Brownsville, TX, and raised in Central Mexico. Smith emerged in the 1980s, and continues to produce exuberant paintings and sculptures characterized by an inimitable style and subject matter that reflect his bi-cultural American and Mexican heritage. Contorted and morphed figures recur throughout his work, in a hybrid that draws from his early studies of fresco painting with traditional practitioners in Mexico, and an indebtedness to Picasso, the Surrealists, and the politically daring Mexican muralists. Through these varied beings, Smith reflects upon the complexities and absurdities of society, family, politics, culture, war, and the human condition itself, framed by birth and death.

The artist has held more than 50 exhibitions around the world during the last two decades, mainly in the United States and Mexico, but also in Japan, Europe, and South America. He participated in the 1989 edition of the Whitney Biennial in New York City. Smith exhibited at the First Triennial of Drawings at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, Spain, and took part in the group exhibition called Latin American Artists of the 20th Century, which traveled from Seville, Spain, to the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Kunsthalle in Cologne, Germany, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Smith’s paintings are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Wurth Museum in Kunzelman, Germany, the Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, amongst others. He currently splits his time between New York and Cuernavaca in Mexico.

Website: https://www.raysmithstudio.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raysmithstudio/

Ray Smith, Nepantla, Ethan Cohen Gallery, New York, installation view, 2024 - 2025, courtesy of Ray Smith Studio and Ethan Cohen Gallery

ISAAC ADEN

Lives and works in Harlem, NY

Isaac Aden is an artist, curator, and writer. Aden’s painting practice contends with the primordial concerns of the human condition and the concept Numinous Sublime. Introduced by the metaphysical theologian Rudolf Otto, it focused less on a sublime of terror and more on an uplifting one which is spiritual in nature. The size of Aden’s paintings consumes the periphery of the viewer, and the effect of the gradual gradient creates a boundless field. This lack of observable form doesn’t allow the viewer to latch on to a specific signifier or object in the painting. The result of this is to reflect the viewing back on to the audience creating a highly subjective and profoundly personal experience.

Aden has exhibited internationally, including: dOCUMENTA 13, MassMOCA, The Fedricianum, White Box, Kassel Werkstadt, David Richard Gallery, Gallerie Rasch, Ulrike Petschel Gallerie, Ethan Cohen Fine Art, SPRING/BREAK, Art Miami, Contemporary Istanbul, VOLTA Basel, Sotheby’s, The Jerome A. Cohen And Joan Lebold Cohen Center for Art. The Bertha and Karl Luebsdorf Gallery, The International Gallery of Contemporary Art, The Parthenon Museum, The New York Public Library, and The World Trade Center. He has been awarded Fellowships and Grants from the Kossak Foundation, Creative Capital, The New York Foundation for the Arts and the United States State Department.

Aden is an editor for the Italian art magazine XIBT, and a frequent contributor to numerous other publications. He is currently working on a book for the Publisher Bloomsbury Academic for their series on Analytic Aesthetics and Contemporary Art.

Website: https://www.isaacaden.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isaac_aden/

Isaac Aden, Untitled Pink Tonalist Painting, 2023, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 ft.

PAZ (Maria Paz Contreras Buzeta)

Artist, Filmmaker, and Curator

PAZ is a multifaceted artist, filmmaker, and curator known for her vibrant abstract paintings and symbols that have been exhibited worldwide. Her artistic journey took a profound turn while studying painting under the tutelage of renowned American master Knox Martin at the Art Students League in New York (2007-2012).

Artistic Achievements:

- Exhibited in prestigious galleries and museums globally, including China, New York, Colombia, Europe, Philippines, Guatemala, and Mexico

- Created a distinctive style blending symbols and abstraction to promote peace and unity

- Explored the concept of "PAZ" (peace in Spanish) through her art, bridging cultural divides

*Film Career:*

- Director of "Radical Perception: The Life and Legacy of Knox Martin," a documentary exploring Martin's artistic vision and philosophy

*Curatorial Experience:*

- Director of Programming, Artists Talk on Art (ATOA)

*Education:*

- Art Students League, New York (2007-2012)

-School of Law Diego Portales Chile 2000-2006

-International Bachelor of Art, Switzerland 1998-1999

Instagram @pazpainting

Website: www.pazrezet.com

NYC Painters Ray Smith and Isaac Aden in Conversation