Jaime Arredondo, painter and Gallatin professor, is set to capture the old subject of floral painting in an entirely new light.
Arredondo, who is also a professor at Parson’s The New School, has gained significant exposure in recent years. His bright, large floral paintings have been featured in the Macy’s Flower Show, a Bloomingdale’s window display for Marc Jacobs’ spring collection and on a set of United Nations stamps. His most recent project involves collaboration with Jo’s, an American bistro in NoLIta, where a special spring installation of his works are on display and for sale until May 31.
Back in the 1980s, Arredondo realized that flowers had become an overdone subject. Throughout his early career as an artist, he wanted to develop a way to stand out as a painter of flora.
“I had to make it different by using my signature [abstract] background. I didn’t want to be an old lady sitting in a corner, painting flowers,” Arredondo said. “I didn’t want to be Georgia O’ Keefe.”
Arredondo started his career as an abstract artist, but now combines both realism and abstraction to create images of naturalistic flowers against nonrepresentational backdrops. It was his move from sunny Texas to the cold Northeast in 1992 that propelled him to pick up his brushes and make flowers his subject.
After a few years of painting in dark and muted colors, he realized that something needed to change. As a result, he turned to nature where color was abundant.
“I’ve been painting flowers in the middle of this urban city and it seems like I would’ve been painting them out in the country somewhere,” Arredondo said. “There’s a profound sense of irony in these paintings.”
But the realistic flora painted by Arredondo is not typical. He chose this subject because he believes it captures a unique, different essence of art.
“What art is, essentially, is its connection to the human condition,” Arredondo said. “I connect [the flowers] to the sense of spirit, soul and identity within ourselves.”
La Invencible II, a piece from 2009, depicts an enormous rose and took over a year to paint. There is a certain impossibility to creating art, he said. It’s why he says one must be invincible and always working against enormous odds to create beauty.
He teaches the same aesthetic inside the classroom.
“By using personal anecdotes and examples from his experience in the art community, Professor Arredondo makes the course material relatable and applicable to modern day art practices,” said Alexa Schaeffer, a junior in Gallatin who is enrolled in Arredondo’s course Of Fire and Blood: Mexican Mythology and Artmaking.
Arredondo, who has been teaching at NYU for the last 14 years, sees his work inside the classroom extending both ways.
“I learn how to paint realistically by teaching my students how to paint realistically,” Arredondo said. “If they could do it, then I could do it.”
Arredondo’s work is currently on display at Jo’s, located at 264 Elizabeth St.
A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, May 2 print edition. Marina Zheng is a staff writer. Email her at [email protected].