Nicholas Kontaxis

UTA Fine Arts presents two pop-up exhibitions in New York with painters Devon Rodriguez and Nicholas Kontaxis. The presentations will be UTA’s first contemporary art activation outside its Beverly Hills and Atlanta gallery locations.

Nicholas Kontaxis' solo exhibition I’m Just Like You has been in the works for over a year and is a continuation of Kontaxis’ previous, highly successful show, titled Catch Me, at UTA’s Beverly Hills Artist Space last summer. Kontaxis will be showcasing work alongside fellow Forbes recipient Devon Rodriguez in UTA’s first contemporary art activation outside its Beverly Hills and Atlanta gallery locations.

The pieces in I’m Just Like You incorporate a multitude of layering applications. The 27-year-old artist uses a battalion of unique, idiosyncratic techniques and tools with a variety of media on massive canvases, rendering vibrantly colored works of art that ring with joy and optimism. The paintings have a sublime, contemplative effect created by Kontaxis’ persistent attention to pattern, texture, and color. Kontaxis used several unique materials for these works including sticks, bark, ash, spices, oil, crayons, linen, and acrylic. This structured chaos lends itself to a hypnotic, visceral, captivating experience for viewers.

Instinctively drawn to painting, the medium has provided Kontaxis with a conduit for expressing his notably distinct interior life. The artist was born with a brain tumor that has resulted in tens of thousands of seizures over his lifetime, atypical motor function, and neurodiversity. His speech consists of short utterances, which are documented while he paints and often become the imaginative titles for his works: Got Issues, That Would Be Me, Unlock Doors, Oh No! My Hair is Puffy, Corn on the Cob, and Put Your Beanie On, to name a few. The profound titles of the works in I’m Just Like You are deep articulations of his inner life, voiced on the canvas.

Nicholas Kontaxis (b. 1996) is a self-taught artist whose abstract expressionist paintings communicate a unique passion for life. Born with a brain tumor that causes significant and frequent seizures, he began painting as a teenager and has grown an expansive body of work. Solo exhibitions include West Contemporary (London), Heather James Fine Art (Palm Springs), Gilman Contemporary (Sun Valley), TAO (Chicago), and Anne O Art (Atlanta). His work has been commissioned by Adidas at Coachella, the Los Angeles Chargers, and Kaiser Permanente Hospitals, among other collectors. Kontaxis has had numerous sold-out, solo shows in Los Angeles, London, Chicago, Atlanta, Palm Desert, and Sun Valley. His paintings have garnered critical comparisons to Sam Francis and Jasper Johns but remain singular in their raw and visceral anomaly.