ARF returns for his third US solo show, Still, She Moves, at Arcadia Contemporary in Soho, New York.
Still, she moves began with the impulse to pull toward lightness in heavy-feeling times. These paintings lean into visual pleasure—bold contrasts, elegant forms, and movement caught mid-gesture.
His paintings, "The Starlet" and, "Aftermath" continue the introspective, emotionally-charged tone of past exhibitions, but from there the series begins to shift. Brighter compositions blend classical references with theatrical arrangements, creating a visual interplay between stillness and transformation.
At the center of the exhibition is a sequential series titled "Still, She Moves," featuring a dancer and close friend of the artist as the model. Her calm control and poised gestures lend the works a sense of movement suspended in time. Around her, silk dresses and rubber gloves form abstract, sculptural shapes. These pairings suggest a tension between refinement and labor, softness and utility, strength and vulnerability. These contrasts hint at familiar roles: the domestic, the decorative, the performative, but are really about the delight of the stolen moments of freedom within these constraints that we all instinctively strive for.
Drawing from the visual languages of painting, fashion, and interior design, each composition is carefully constructed—structured yet fluid, refined yet strange.
At their core, these works explore transformation. They speak to freedom within boundaries—the idea that constraint doesn’t necessarily limit expression, but sharpens it. Each gesture is a quiet assertion of presence, suspended in a moment just before it changes.
