Doron Langberg: Night

Prominent among a new generation of figurative painters, Doron Langberg creates works that, luminous in colour and often large in scale, celebrate the physicality of touch – in subject matter and process. Depicting a range of subjects, from queer love to wildflowers and sweeping landscapes, the broad scope of themes and experiences in Langberg’s work are united by his deeply felt use of paint. Speaking about his work, the artist has said ‘Intimacy and closeness are at the centre of my practice. Whether it’s a portrait of a friend or depictions of a couple in bed, I want to express the multivalent and complex nature of relationships, highlighting our connectedness to one another.’ Langberg’s expansive take on relationships, sexuality, nature, family and the self proposes how painting can both portray and create queer subjectivity.

Often orchestrating multiple figures, as well as details of textiles, clothing and interior patterns, the artist works initially directly from life, making small-scale works that generate ideas about mood and colour palette in addition to likeness – or, more importantly, as Langberg puts it, the sense of a ‘living person’. From these improvisational sessions he builds compositions in which figures often appear to move in or out of focus, emerging from or receding into their surroundings. This dynamic interplay between people and the places they inhabit, in which areas might appear boldly declarative or remain consciously indeterminate, leaving areas of abstraction, gaps or breathing spaces, lends the work its distinctive psychological register. The dissolving of boundaries, meanwhile, speaks of inner and outer worlds, not only those occupied by the subject of each painting but by the artist and viewer as well. A slow unfolding of colour, form and materiality creates, in the words of the artist, ‘a different relationship between the viewer and the figure, perhaps a more empathic relationship.’

About the Artist

?Born in 1985 in Yokneam Moshava, Israel, Doron Langberg currently lives and works in New York City. He received his MFA from Yale University School of Art, holds a BFA from the University of Pennsylvania, a Certificate from PAFA, and attended the Yale Summer School of Music and Art, Norfolk. Langberg has attended the EFA Studio Program, Sharpe Walentas Studio Program, Yaddo artist residency, and the Queer Art Mentorship Program. He is the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters John Koch award for painting, the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, and the Yale Schoelkopf Travel Prize.

Work by the artist is currently on view as part of the collection display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA, and the National Portrait Gallery, London, UK.

The artist’s first solo institutional exhibition in Europe, Doron Langberg: Part of Your World, was on view at Kunsthal Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 2024. Previously, an exhibition featuring new and recent works by the artist was on view at Rubell Museum Miami (2022–23). In 2022, Langberg’s works were on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston as part of the major group exhibition A Place for Me: Figurative Painting Now; at The Frick Collection, New York, as part of Living Histories: Queer Views and Old Masters; and at ICA Miami in Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami’s Collection the first major exhibition to showcase the permanent collection.

Earlier exhibitions include Friends and Lovers a group show on view at FLAG Art Foundation in New York, (2023–24); Beautiful, Vivid, Self-contained, Hill Art Foundation, New York, USA (2023); Any distance between us, RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island (2021–22); Breakfast Under the Tree, a group exhibition curated by Russell Tovey, at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, Kent (2021); Intimacy: New Queer Art from Berlin and Beyond at the Schwules Museum, Berlin, Germany (2021) and Doron Langberg: Give Me Love, the artist’s first solo exhibition, at Victoria Miro, London, UK (2021). His work has also been shown at institutional venues including the LSU Museum, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Leslie-Lohman Museum and The PAFA Museum.

Langberg’s work is in collections including Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, USA; Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, USA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston and Miami, USA; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA; Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMCO), Genève, Switzerland; National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, USA; Rennie Museum, Vancouver, Canada; RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, USA; Rubell Museum, Miami, USA.

Langberg’s first solo exhibition at Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, was held in 2019.