Artworks

Louis Fratino

American, b. 1993

The Manhattan Bridge, 2019

Oil on canvas

60x 48 in. (152.40 x 121.92 cm)

© Louis Fratino, courtesy of Beth Rudin DeWoody

Image courtesy of Ciaccia Levi, Paris

Fratino’s subject matter runs the gamut: figure, still life, landscape, cityscape. Most of his work references the idyllic, whether it be the bright sun of the seaside or a moonlit walk in the park, nary a hint of danger or reproach. In this painting, in which a lone man walks his dog at night along the Brooklyn waterfront, one might be in mind of the common rejoinder to stay aware of your surroundings while being diverted by the glow (and perhaps incoming texts) from your smartphone.

For other viewers, the painting may recall the riverside rims of Manhattan and the outer boroughs, long before the rise of today’s luxury condominium towers, as sites of sanctuary; one neither gentrified nor entirely safe, but one where generations of the marginalized of society, at manual labor or in respite, found opportunity and community.