J
Thorpe
Media:
Painting, Photography
Studio Location:
Artist Studios at 43-01 22nd Street
Room/Studio#
403
Website:
Artist Bio:
NYCool is a New York–based visual artist working across painting, drawing, photography, and videography with a hands-on approach that extends beyond the image itself - he stretches his own canvases, builds his own wood frames, sews, and tattoos (including himself) as part of his broader creative process. Working primarily with acrylic on canvas and wood, his work moves between figurative expression and abstraction.
A life-long creative, NYCool began by drawing comic books in elementary school and has since expanded into multiple mediums. His photography has been published in magazines, including Om Yoga, and he continues to take on select photo shoots. True to his nature, his work resists being pretentious or drawn out - he creates instinctively, driven by a genuine enjoyment of the act of making itself.
Artist Statement:
“How do you describe something that can’t be described?” My work begins with that question.
I’m drawn to the eyes as windows into the soul and to the mouth as a site of expression, desire, tension, and release, using these elements to explore emotion, presence, impermanence, and human connection. Rather than constructing a full narrative, I isolate a moment and let it exist on its own. A look, a gesture, a pause - fleeting moments that, when suspended in time, take on a weight of their own.
My process moves between control and spontaneity, precision and raw gesture. I build a painting through layering, responding to each layer as form and color develop, shaping it as much by discovery as by design. Ultimately, the work is about presence - holding something just long enough for it to be felt without explanation. Whether figurative or abstract, I’m interested in leaving room for the viewer to bring their own meaning into what resists definition.
