SOLO

exhibition

“We are all in this planet together and should unite rather than divide, because we have a lot more in common than we think we do. Let's all work together, opposed to working against one another.”

Eugene Kuperman is a published and an award-winning artist.

A portrait of my mentor and friend, Lance Richlin, who posed for a portrait drawing study. I measured his head with a caliper so the portrait is life sized, due to lack of time, I had to finish this drawing from a photograph.

Eugene’s work is in many private collections including in a private collection of Robert Harris Rothchild who has many notable works in his collection by artists like: Rembrandt, Chagall, Dali, Ernst, Lichtenstein, and many more.

The Devil is in the Details

Oil

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A conceptual work I did regarding the pandemic that has been sweeping the nation as well as the world for a long time. In 2019, two people I personally knew overdosed from hardcore drugs.

This painting shows an arrangement of various different drugs and drugs paraphernalia. In the center are the two most common types, being marijuana on the left and a cap off of an alcoholic drink on the right. They both are situated on my art business card, which has a painting of a homeless man, laying on Hollywood, as passengers pass him by. All of the items are in the form of a pentagram which is linked with the sign of the devil, and the items are also on a symbolic plastic body bag, which is what each victim of hardcore addiction eventually leaves in, if they overdose to death. I did this painting to bring awareness about the dangers of drugs.

Let's all work together, as opposed to working against one another.

An art catalog came out in 2012 featuring many of those artists as well as the work commissioned from Eugene.

The Holocaust, while it was the largest persecution of the Jewish people, wasn't the first.

There has been an attempt to divide humans into over 5000 different ethnic groups, and my question is, whether the original 3-5 racial groups or 5000 ethnic groups, what difference does it make? Do further divisions make people feel more or less secure? I did this painting during a time of political identity segregation in the United States. My initial statement, is that while these three canvases interchange, there is no clear winner. We are all in this planet together and should unite rather than divide, because we have a lot more in common than we think we do. Let's all work together, as opposed to working against one another.

The Holocaust has made it clear that this can happen again, and anywhere.

The Armenian Genocide has not been recognized as a genocide through a worldwide consensus such as The Holocaust has. This painting shows a possibly Turkish man, teasing starving Armenian children and an elderly woman with a piece of pita bread. By doing this piece, I'm not aiming to demonize any group of people, including Turkish people alive today, who had nothing to do with what happened over 100 years ago. However, the problem with this genocide not being recognized worldwide is that it allows for other genocides to take place. If The Armenian Genocide would be recognized, it would create a chain reaction worldwide to stop current genocides and prevent future genocides. Among the victims of the Armenian Genocide, were 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children. Other groups who suffered in this genocide includes 450,000-750,000 Greeks, 300,000 Bulgarians and 150,000-300,000 Assyrians.

This painting is about a newborn baby coming into this world with the mother and the brother welcoming a new member of the family. This theme can be referenced back to paintings by old masters such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Titian, etc. for it being as if it’s Madonna and Child, Adoration of the Magi, or Madonna and Saint John the Baptist with infant Jesus. In the execution of this painting, I referenced back to artists such as Raphael and Michelangelo. Raphael for his Madonna and Child themes and Michelangelo as well but with the divine sense that comes through his work such as in his Doni Tondo which hangs at Uffizi Gallery in Florence. This painting although not that large in size took me over a year to paint due to the fact that I wanted every square inch of the painting done with utmost love and care. This was a very intimate and spiritual project for me as I felt somewhat connected to the Renaissance masters of the past with their traditional themes.

From 2010 to his passing in 2014, Eugene Kuperman studied with a renowned Russian artist Leonid Steele whose works are in many museums in the world, including pieces in the Tretyakov Gallery in Russia.