They are immaculately dressed in silks and furs, young and glaring from the paintings with big, precocious eyes… and they’re all smoking cigarettes. Artist Nir Hod paints his “longtime fascination with beauty and loneliness, glamour, and death” as a series of unsettling portraits that we just can’t look away from. With a warped, aristocratic upturn of the eyebrow, these boys, toddlers and the occasional gent are full of personality and “eerie self-possession.” Hod’s first solo exhibit Genius is open now the Paul Kasmin Gallery. Here are our favorite works.





Comments (11)
I guess I might like it (didn’t look at the rest) if it were better executed.
I say creepy!
Definitely in the creepy paint by numbers category.
Saw the exhibition last night. There are a few wonderful works, but overall, I have to say the impact was neither frightening nor that impressive.
Think they are great and could be improved by removing the cigarette. The artist has very skilfully imposed adult expressions onto the faces of the children. Brilliant.
I didn’t need to see SO many of these. He could make his point in about 3 or 4. Yeah, I know, the more paintings you do, the more money you make! Ick.
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Not Creepy or Provocative, just not very good.
These are awesome!
[...] drag with a vintage cigarette holder… Yes, it’s a bit disturbing, like Nir Hod’s paintings of elegant smoking boys, but compelling [...]
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