Adi Oren

Adi Oren is a figurative painter and assemblage artist who has exhibited extensively in New York as well as shown throughout the United States. Recent solo exhibitions include Chashama Gallery, Gallery 23, and ArtExpo in New York and duel shows at Gallerie 271 in Monterey, Massachusetts. Selective collective shows include Chelsea Industrial, Gambit Works, Rema Mann Hort Foundation, and FORMah Gallery in New York, Newport Island Harbor Resort in Rhode Island, 484 Gallery in Montauk, New York,and Contessa Gallery in West Palm Beach. Adi’s awards include recognition with the National Artist Registry of the U.S. General Services Administration as well as an award for Best Booth Design at ArtExpo in New York. She has been notably published by Forbes, FAD magazine, Arts to Hearts magazine, and Creatrix. 

Combining abstraction with representational aspects, Adi Oren portrays vintage figures amongst the backdrops of planes which resemble an abstract expressionist painting. The figures are often highly defined in form yet impressioned in detail, similar to a silhouette and are often based on retro photography or even sometimes images based on golden era celebrities. Ranging from swimming, diving, running, dancing, gymnastics, or even just laying down on the beach, Adi’s figures have a sense of purpose and activity to express recreational pursuits in what appears to be dated imagery from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. 

The most fascinating paintings tend to be the ones which are most abstract, where the planes of the distorted landscape seem to swallow the figures much like how a fog consumes a scenery in the near distance. These particular works specifically express a sfumato and theatrical aesthetic which enhances the overall vintage nostalgia of the imagery, as if these were fleeting memories of time. Adi’s washes of smoke and soot typically appear in bright hazes of color such as yellow, orange, or red. Through an element of surprise as well as reflecting emotional impulses, these dramatic works express deep inclinations of an era which slipped away through the erosion of time and space.

Echoes of Grace (pictured above) depicts a vintage scene of what could be taken from a film still. The piece remains one of the very few assemblage works by Adi, incorporating newspaper as a baseline for the painted figures. With smears of white and silhouetted dancing figures, the assemblage conveys contemporary inclinations with monochromatic activity and minimal application. The expressive smears of abstracted white paint against the newsprint appear like strategic fireworks going off in the distance as the dancers convey a display of grand theatrics. 

Adi Oren drives a deeper purpose to figurative art by integrating abstracted planes which behave as an anchor and impression of smoke, soot, light, and shadow. Through a vintage appeal and stylized depictions of the human form engaging in activity, she explores a realm of expression based on theatrical presentations and sense of drama in what would otherwise appear as sportsmanship-type activity in most instances. Through a sophisticated design-sensitive eye and skill for integrating naturalism with abstracted planes and forms, Adi Oren creates inspiration for reflection on previous eras and how their surface aesthetics accentuate contemporary poetry. 

https://adioren.com