The River Bed_Pagano 18 x 61.25.jpeg
IMG_7671.jpeg (Copy)
The River Bed_Pagano 18 x 61.25.jpeg
IMG_7671.jpeg (Copy)

The River Bend

$2,400.00

John Pagano, Paxton, Massachusetts

Materials: Acrylic and acetate

Size: 18 × 61.25 inches [click image for full view]

US Continental Shipping: Included in price.

‍John Pagano of Paxton, Massachusetts is the kind of artist collectors remember. A celebrated abstract painter with decades of dedication to his craft, Pagano creates work that creates an immediate emotional response. He instinctively balances raw gesture with sophisticated composition. John creates pictures that feel alive with movement, imagination, color and form. His distinctive visual language effortlessly bridges abstraction and representation, giving viewers something new to discover every time they stand before the work.

Pagano has earned longstanding recognition throughout New England for his powerful large-scale paintings. He was selected as the inaugural artist for the Worcester Art Museum Central Massachusetts Artist Initiative — a significant honor that positioned his work prominently within the museum’s contemporary programming. His paintings have also been exhibited through respected institutions and venues including the Fitchburg Art Museum, ArtsWorcester, Sprinkler Factory and the Worcester Center for Crafts. We have had the distinct honor of his support since our inception. John has participated in many Juniper Rag exhibitions, virtual and in-person.

Highly collected and endlessly compelling, Pagano’s work carries the confidence of an artist who has spent a lifetime refining his voice. His paintings really command a room — sophisticated enough for serious collectors and institutions, and deeply visceral and accessible.

John Pagano, Paxton, Massachusetts

Materials: Acrylic and acetate

Size: 18 × 61.25 inches [click image for full view]

US Continental Shipping: Included in price.

‍John Pagano of Paxton, Massachusetts is the kind of artist collectors remember. A celebrated abstract painter with decades of dedication to his craft, Pagano creates work that creates an immediate emotional response. He instinctively balances raw gesture with sophisticated composition. John creates pictures that feel alive with movement, imagination, color and form. His distinctive visual language effortlessly bridges abstraction and representation, giving viewers something new to discover every time they stand before the work.

Pagano has earned longstanding recognition throughout New England for his powerful large-scale paintings. He was selected as the inaugural artist for the Worcester Art Museum Central Massachusetts Artist Initiative — a significant honor that positioned his work prominently within the museum’s contemporary programming. His paintings have also been exhibited through respected institutions and venues including the Fitchburg Art Museum, ArtsWorcester, Sprinkler Factory and the Worcester Center for Crafts. We have had the distinct honor of his support since our inception. John has participated in many Juniper Rag exhibitions, virtual and in-person.

Highly collected and endlessly compelling, Pagano’s work carries the confidence of an artist who has spent a lifetime refining his voice. His paintings really command a room — sophisticated enough for serious collectors and institutions, and deeply visceral and accessible.

John Pagano, Paxton, Massachusetts

Statement:

My paintings are a narrative using suggestive imagery, realism and abstraction. Canvas, sailcloth and in 2022 acetate, utilizing both surfaces, front and back, to create enhanced colors, brushwork and illumination.

Mark making, color, the subconscious and the physical act of applying paint is central to my art work. I want to confront the viewer with a visual challenge, large or small, a dare to question themselves and what they are seeing, and give them an opportunity to bring themselves into the picture . . . . color, speed, temperature and spirit are always at the forefront of my art making. My more recent work moves in the gap of abstraction and representation. I enjoy playing within the boundaries of imagery, that gap between what is realistic and what is abstracted. As a painter I work intuitively . I rarely doubt the direction a picture takes as I am working on it. I have learned to trust that the painting will unquestionably reveal its direction, it is always a self portrait.

Nick Capasso, Director of the Fitchburg Art Museum states, “John Pagano is an immensely accomplished painter who extends important traditions of abstract painting into the 21st century. With roots in the work of Gorky, deKooning, and Twombly, he creates lyrical and colorful images that suggest subtle and ineffable mental states.”

As a non traditional contemporary painter, I decided to exhibit paintings done on optically clear acetate. The colors are applied and mixed utilizing the front and the rear of the material, presenting colors that POP in hi-def.” — John Pagano about his recent solo exhibition of acetate work at Colo Colo Gallery in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Bio:

John Pagano is an American abstractionist whose work has evolved through decades of relentless experimentation, intuition and psychological exploration. Beginning his studies at the Worcester Art Museum School before earning a BFA in Painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Pagano developed a deeply personal style rooted in gesture, movement, pure imagination and subconscious response. Working continuously between Worcester, Boston, Cambridge, New Bedford and Paxton, his practice has expanded across painting, sculpture, installation, drawing and mixed media while remaining grounded in the physical and emotional act of abstraction. No matter the medium, his work is identifiable.

For John Pagano, abstraction is investigative. His paintings emerge through instinctive mark-making and improvisation, often revealing fragmented imagery, rhythm and psychological narrative beneath the surface. Forms give way to possibilities that keep your eyes roaming. Known for what critics have called his “accentuated gestures,” Pagano creates work that feels immediate, raw and deeply human. Over the years, his practice has moved fluidly between richly layered color fields, stark monochromatic works, suspended sculptural forms, carved materials and expansive canvases that emphasize process as much as image. The studio remains a place of continual discovery, where painting becomes both physical act and subconscious excavation. John is always experimenting with materials.

Widely respected throughout New England, Pagano has become one of Central Massachusetts’ most accomplished and highly collected abstractionists. His work has been exhibited through institutions and galleries including the Worcester Art Museum, Fitchburg Art Museum, Sprinkler Factory and Colo Colo. The Worcester Art Museum selected Pagano as the inaugural artist for its Central Massachusetts Artist Initiative, recognizing both the depth of his practice and his longstanding influence within the regional contemporary arts community. A fearless and continually evolving artist, Pagano’s work carries the rare ability to feel both intellectually rigorous and constantly evolving — paintings that continue to challenge, provoke and resonate. This is a rare gift he possesses. Reinvention, while keeping your signature style is not easy.

Image credit: Stephen DiRado