Prominent among a new generation of figurative painters, Doron Langberg creates works that, luminous in colour and often large in scale, celebrate the physicality of touch – in subject matter and process. Depicting a range of subjects, from queer love to wildflowers and sweeping landscapes, the broad scope of themes and experiences in Langberg’s work are united by the artist’s deeply felt use of paint. Langberg has said, ‘Intimacy and closeness are at the centre of my practice. Whether it’s a portrait of a friend or depictions of a couple in bed, I want to express the multivalent and complex nature of relationships, highlighting our connectedness to one another.’ Langberg’s expansive take on relationships, sexuality, nature, family and the self proposes how painting can both portray and create queer subjectivity.
Often orchestrating multiple figures, as well as details of textiles, clothing and interior patterns, the artist works initially directly from life, making small-scale works that generate ideas about mood and colour palette in addition to likeness – or, more importantly, as Langberg puts it, the sense of a ‘living person’. From these improvisational sessions the artist builds compositions in which figures often appear to move in or out of focus, emerging from or receding into their surroundings. This dynamic interplay between people and the places they inhabit, in which areas might appear boldly declarative or remain consciously indeterminate, leaving areas of abstraction, gaps or breathing spaces, lends the work its distinctive psychological register. The dissolving of boundaries, meanwhile, speaks of inner and outer worlds, not only those occupied by the subject of each painting but by the artist and viewer as well. A slow unfolding of colour, form and materiality creates, in the words of the artist, ‘a different relationship between the viewer and the figure, perhaps a more empathic relationship.’
