Jordan Casteel’s recent flower paintings are based on the seasonal blooms in her garden in the Catskill region in New York, where she has recently relocated from New York City. Turning from the street scenes and subway riders of New York that provided her subject matter for years, her new bucolic environment provided a new perspective. 'I’m now starting to paint landscapes and still lifes, leaning into the questions of light and space and form within the context of a still life or my immediate surroundings as they are changing.' A highly personal subject, Casteel’s flowers can be viewed as self-portraits: ‘I see my own labor in it. It’s not about observing the things that are most true for you in this moment. It’s about observing the things that were most true for me.’

In Phoenix, rich green leaves stand out vividly against a pale crimson interior, contrasted with a flower surging out in florid oranges, pushing against the top of the composition. Painted alla prima with a great dexterity of touch, the flowers surge and assert themselves amid an almost uniformly coloured background – elegant, strong and beautiful.

Jordan Casteel (b.1989) lives and works in upstate New York. Recent solo exhibitions include 'In Bloom', Casey Kaplan, NY (2022); 'African Marigold', Pièce Unique, Paris (2022); 'Within Reach', New Museum, NY (2020); 'The Practice of Freedom', Casey Kaplan, NY; 'Jordan Casteel: Returning the Gaze', Denver Art Museum, Denver, and Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Stanford (all 2019).