leslie-lohman museum of art nyc – ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon

The Artwork of Gonzalo Orquin

Born in 1982 at Aracena, a town in the Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche National Park, Gonzalo Orquín is a Spanish multi-media artist, painter and photographer. His oeuvre includes works on paper, oils on canvas, street art, and installations.

At an early age, Orquin relocated with his family to Seville, the provincial capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia. He studied Fine Arts at Spain’s University of Seville between 2000 and 2004. Orquin continued his studies at Italy’s University of Perugia in 2005. He later undertook a residency at the Fondazione Sant’Elia, the cultural center for the promotion of the artistic and cultural heritage of the Province of Palermo, where his work was inspired by the light and traditions of the surrounding area.

Gonzalo Orquin’s work is influenced by the traditional Spanish realism of both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. through which he transforms the intimacy of everyday occurrences into measured dramatic events. His paintings consist of portraits and populated scenes, both interior and exterior, that are often created with a muted palette. Committed to the rights of the LBGTQ world, Orquin’w work, which displays a thoughtful depth of emotion, focuses on both gay and straight subjects with an eye to both the past and the present.

In 1999 at the age of sixteen, Orquin had his first exhibition in Seville. His first solo exhibition was held in Rome in 2006. In that year, Orquin received the Oltre i Libri Award from the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. He has participated in group shows at Rome’s Royal Spanish Academy and St. Petersburg’s Museum of 20th and 21st Century Art. Orquin has presented his work in solo exhibitions at Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MACRO), and the Leslie=Lohman Museum of Art in New York City.

As a photographer, Gonzalo Orquin is best known for his 2013 series “Si Quiero”, a collection of sixteen photographs of same-sex couples kissing in churches mainly located in Rome. Originally presented as part of “Trialogo”, a solo exhibition of his work in various mediums, these images were considered offensive by the diocese of Rome which threatened legal action. For the duration of the exhibition, these images were covered with black cardboard. Later exhibitions of the entire series were held at the Gallery MooiMan in Groningen, the Netherlands, and New York’s Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in April/May of 2015.

In 2023, Orquin presented his exhibition “Being Human-The Sea At Night Is Too Big” at Brussels’s MigratieMuseumMigration (MMM). This show focused on the stories and experiences of migrant and refugees arriving in Europe, either by sea to Italy or by land to Bosnia. The project was a collaboration with Italian photojournalist Francesco Malavolta which included a documentary film by French director Alex Forge who narrates Orquin’s work process and meetings with the migrants and refugees.

Gonzalo Orquin currently lives and works between Italy and Spain. A twenty-year retrospective exhibition of his work was held in Palermo, Italy in September of 2025. Orquin’s website is located at: https://www.gonzaloorquin.com

Top Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Gonzalo Orquin”, 2021, Color Video Shot

Second Insert Image: Gonzalo Orquin, Untitled Still Life (Art Supplies), Oil on Canvas

Third Insert Image: Gonzalo Orquin, “Julian and Leo”, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 90 x70 cm

Bottom Insert Image: Gonzalo Orquin, “Un Muchacho Ruso”, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 45 x 45 cm

The Artwork of Richard Stabbert

Born in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1959, Richard Stabbert is an American painter, author and researcher. A self-taught artist, he creates small intimate paintings inspired by the memories of people, both past and present, who made an impression on his life. Depicting the casual and positive experiences in life, Stabbert’s sentimental and often whimsical work presents an idyllic retreat from the speed and commotion of the industrial world.

Born to German immigrant parents, Stabbert spent time in his early years on the beaches of the New Jersey shoreline, a period in his life that provides both inspiration and reference for his work. Stabbert’s later summer experiences in Provincetown, Massachusetts, as well as the time he spent in Paris also serve as influences in his work. His paintings are known for their simple details, bold color composition and equally strong foregrounds and backgrounds, similar characteristics to those works in the Naïve genre.

Richard Stabbert’s acrylic and chalk paintings, almost gestural in execution, evoke a casual spontaneity and relaxed sensuality. He creates his work through a limited color palette that is dominated by pink and blue tones. Central to the compositions are Stabbert’s male figures constructed simply with broad, almost impasto, brushwork heightened by strokes of deep black and shaded areas of lighter grays. The background vistas in his work have a flat rendering style composed of simplified details and expanses of tonal primary colors.

Stabbert’s paintings have been included in the 2011 edition of “100 Artists of the Male Figure: A Contemporary Anthology of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture”; the 2011 “The Art of Man: Volumes 1-6”, a special anthology edition that includes artist interviews and work from six quarterly journals of “The Art of Man”; and Firehouse Publishing’s 2014 “Vitruvian Lens – Edition 5: Fine Art Male Photography”.

One of Richard Stabbert’s first solo exhibitions was “Été”at the Les Mots à la Bouche, an established bookshop and gallery in Paris. He also presented his work in the 2011 “Memories of Moments” held at New York City’s BrianRiley1ProjectSpace, a Broadway creative hub that provides a platform for artistic visions. Other gallery exhibitions include those at Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts in Brooklyn, New York; Asbury Park’s APEX Gallery in New Jersey; Provincetown’s Ray Wiggs Gallery in Massachusetts; the Sidetracks Art Gallery in New Hope, Pennsylvania; and Red Bank’s Susan Berke Fine Arts in New Jersey.

Stabbert is the author of the 2013 “Provincetown Memories: Paintings and Words” published in two editions through North Carolina’s Firehouse Publications. This work presents Stabbert’s simple sensual paintings alongside a personal journal of self-discovery, love, and intimate memories of both the beauty and freedom experienced during Provincetown summers.

In addition to many private collections, Richard Stabbert’s paintings are housed in the permanent collection of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York City. His work is now available through Provincetown’s Art Love Gallery located at: https://www.artlovegallery.com as well as Galerie MooiMan in Gronigen, Netherlands: https://www.mooi-man.nl

Richard Stabbert’s website, which includes new works and gallery contacts, is located at: http://rstabbert.com

Second Insert Image: Richard Stabbert, “Carry”, 2021, Acrylic and Chalk Paint on Canvas, 22.8 x 30.5 cm

Bottom Insert Image: Richard Stabbert, “Craig”, 2018, Acrylic on Canvas, 20,3 x 30.5 cm