Aaron Zulpo, originally from Illinois, is a Brooklyn based painter with a BFA degree from Rhode Island School of Design. His work is story-based, and for exhibitions, he usually works around one theme or one story. His recent A Ski Series depicts the complex juxtaposition between the natural and the artificial through using bright colors and patterns. Inspired by films and books, he hopes his work to be both spatially elegant and visually intriguing. Aaron has had solo exhibitions at 1969 Gallery in New York and Visions West Contemporary in Denver. He also has exhibited at the fairs Volta, NY and Pulse Miami Beach with Project: ARTspace. Select group exhibitions include Danese Corey, Patel Gallery, and Freight and Volume.Artist StatementFor the last four years, I’ve wanted to make large studio landscape paintings. The idea started after thinking about the rich history of American landscape painting and viewing pieces by Albert Beirdstadt and Thomas Cole. The tradition of being an explorer painter is very enticing. You get to travel to new sites and be outside, and more importantly, you are surrounded by your subject matter. Most artists paint what is relatively close to them or self-assembled. Landscape painting, on the other hand, requires you to travel miles or in the case of early American landscape painters across a continent to find a muse. Once they did their studies, they traveled back to their studio to interpret what they experienced. I wanted to have the same experience of being outside, immersed in the subject, and then bringing those studies back into the studio to re-imagine.For A Ski Series, my muse was skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I picked the activity of skiing because of its familiarity. It was an activity I did often growing up and this allowed me to create a story to drive all the paintings. Stories help me compose the paintings and connect them together. I picked Jackson Hole for its landscapes. The scenery is breathtaking and dramatic with mountains that seem to shoot out of the earth as the National Park surrounds them. For me, there are few places as beautiful as Jackson Hole.I was in Wyoming during the winter and painted outside, both on and off the ski slopes. I brought the studies back to my studio in Brooklyn, New York where I created landscape paintings with a metaphysical and exuberant feeling that combined the narrative of a family vacation. I worked to create a world where things buzzed and vibrated. Snow became wavy paint lines to capture its ever-changing hues. Sun and stars are shown with such intensity you can see their visible rays. The crispness and brightness of a snow color day are blinding. Trees became my strong shapes that help to divide the picture plane. In all, I created 14 paintings to capture the joyous feeling of being outside and on the slopes. CVBorn in 1985 in IllinoisLives and works in BrooklynEducation2008 BFA, Rhode Island School of DesignSolo Exhibitions2019A Ski Vacation, Visions West Contemporary (Upcoming)2018Up and Up, 1969 Gallery, New York2017Tales of American Adventures, Visions West Contemporary, Denver2016VOLTANY, Project: ARTspace, New York2012Voyeurs, Project: ARTspace, New YorkGroup Exhibitions2020Adventure Painting, 1969 Gallery, NY2019SWAB, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey CAStrange Truths, Platform Project SPACE, New YorkSPF 32, New YorkI ❤️ Paint, Patel, TorontoPersonal Spaces, Danese/Corey, New York103/14 #1, 1969 Gallery, New YorkWhat Lies Ahead, Visions West Contemporary, Denver2018PULSE Miami Beach, Project: ARTspaceThe Wacky West, Visions West Contemporary, Bozeman, MontanaSummer of Love, Freight + Volume, New YorkPrivate Practice, Underdonk, Brooklyn Plus One, Project: ARTspace, New YorkGroup Show, Serving the People and Milk Studio, New York2017PULSE Miami Beach, Project: ARTspace, MiamiSeptember: How was Your Summer, 1969 Gallery, New YorkBest Kept Secret, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MASummer in the City: The Brooklyn Show, Paula Estey Gallery, Newburyport, MA2016Unstretched, Cheryl Hazan Gallery, New YorkPULSE Miami Beach, Project: ARTspace, MiamiThanksgiving, Muse Art LTD, Hong KongFADA: House of Madness, 23rd Annual Watermill Center Arts Benefit & Auction, Watermill, NYThe City, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PAMigration- No More Great Wall, The Woo Space, Beijing2014 Surburbanites and Urbanites, Andrea Heimer and Aaron Zulpo Hooloon Gallery, PhiladelphiaAwards + Residencies2020 SWAB Yellow Stone2020 Shandaken Paint School2019 SWAB Residency2019 Visions West Contemporary Residency2018 SWAB Residency2018 Macedonia Institute Residency2016 Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) PULSE Picks, Miami2016 Ace Hotel Artist in Residence, New YorkPressSam McKinniss on Aaron Zulpo, Painters on PaintingsThursday Spotlight: Aaron Zulpo, Painter of Narratives, GreenpointersSuburbanites and Urbanites at Hooloon Art, The Art BlogDreamscapes for the 21st Century at the Volta Art Fair, Hyperallergic