Devon Rodriguez

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.

Devon Rodriguez, a Honduran-Puerto Rican-American painter from the South Bronx, is the world’s most followed visual artist on social media with over 31 million followers on TikTok alone and is a client of UTA in all areas. He is a leading portraitist of the era and has drawn high-profile figures from President Joe Biden to actor Jared Leto and musician Ed Sheeran, among many others. The NYC event represents the first time UTA Fine Arts is exhibiting works from an artist endemic to the creator economy, showcasing the company’s commitment to supporting and promoting unique talent across a range of creative fields.

For his first solo presentation, held at UTA Artist Space’s pop-up gallery in Chelsea, Rodriguez will reveal a new body of work, nearly two years in the making, that builds on his celebrated Subway Series. Underground will be the first time he exhibits a piece featuring himself to the public. His largest self-portrait to date, Rodriguez will be situated among several individuals in one of his most complex and ambitious works to date. The exhibition goes beyond New York and captures passengers from diverse corners of the world, encountered during his travels on the London tube and Paris and Barcelona metros. Through these portraits, Rodriguez exposes the distinct qualities, peculiarities, and shared humanity of a global collective of train travelers.

Devon Rodriguez (b. 1996) is a Honduran-Puerto Rican-American artist and painter from the South Bronx. As a young adult, inspired by his love of graffiti, Rodriguez pursued his passion for art with aspirations to attend the esteemed High School of Art and Design in Manhattan. Despite facing initial disappointment when his application was rejected, he resiliently enrolled in Samuel Gompers High School in the South Bronx. It was there that he encountered a transformative art teacher, Jeremy Harper, whose encouragement spurred Rodriguez to persistently refine his skills and pursue his dreams as an artist. In 2011, Rodriguez finally secured admission to the High School of Art and Design, where he expanded his practice and first started to draw fellow passengers on the subway, as he often rode the No. 6 train connecting the Bronx and Manhattan. Rodriguez rose to attention in 2019 when he was nominated as a finalist in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, which celebrates excellence in the art of portraiture. He soon thereafter joined TikTok and gained immediate success for sketching strangers on the New York City subway system and capturing their reactions. Now, with over 31m followers on TikTok alone, he is the most followed visual artist on social media and a leading influencer in the fine arts space and beyond, represented by United Talent Agency (UTA). In recent years, Rodriguez has continued to draw fellow passengers on the subway alongside commissioned portraits of high-profile figures from President Joe Biden to leading actors Jared Leto and Jennifer Coolidge. Rodriguez currently teaches art courses online, including a MasterClass on portraiture.