Anthony Cudahy (born 1989) is an contemporary American painter known for his figurative compositions that blend abstraction and realism, drawing from a diverse sources including personal photographs, queer archival imagery, art history, and cinematic stills.[1][2][3][4] Based in Brooklyn, New York, Cudahy explores themes of intimacy, vulnerability, queer identity, and the interplay between past and present through layered painting.[5] His paintings are known for their tender and complex depictions of human experience, often rendered in luminous, phosphorescent colors and fluid brushstrokes that give his scenes a dreamlike quality.[6][7]
Anthony Cudahy was born in 1989 in Fort Myers, Florida, a region characterized by wetlands and subtropical climate.[8] His upbringing in Florida subtly informs his work, with natural elements such as flora and light often appearing as recurring motifs.[6] Seeking broader artistic opportunities, Cudahy relocated to New York City, where he pursued his formal education in the arts. In 2011, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, a prestigious institution known for its rigorous arts programs.[1][2][3] He returned to school to complete a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at Hunter College in New York in 2020.[1][2][3] This advanced training honed his technical skills and deepened his conceptual approach, allowing him to refine his distinctive style.[9] Cudahy lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, with his husband, photographer, Ian Lewandowski.[1][2][3]
Artistic Style and Themes
Cudahy’s work occupies a space between figuration and abstraction.[10] The subjects of his paintings are often human figures — solitary or in pairs — set within ambiguous, atmospheric environments such as domestic interiors, natural landscapes, or social gatherings.[11][12] The scenes in his paintings often present an ambiguous narrative which invites viewers to interpret the emotional and historical content.[13] Cudahy's paintings are often a hybrid of visual histories blending various figures from art history and queer photography into contemporary scenes such as portraiture, domestic spaces, or social sites.[14]
Central to Cudahy’s oeuvre are themes of queer identity, tenderness, and the continuum of experience across time.[9][10] His works often depict intimate moments — lovers embracing, figures in quiet reflection — that speak to the nuances of human connection.[14] Trauma and hope coexist in his paintings, as he examines how personal and collective histories shape the present.[15][12] By reimagining forgotten or marginalized stories, particularly those tied to queer experience, Cudahy constructs allegories that resonate with both specificity and universality.[15]
Anthony Cudahy, Zachary (delayed), 2013, Oil on canvas, 19 x 24 inches, (48.3 x 61 cm)
Cudahy draws inspiration from an eclectic archive that includes personal snapshots, film stills, computer screenshots, queer historical photographs, and art-historical references ranging from medieval tapestries to the works of Pieter Bruegel and William Blake.[9][4] Lewandowski, also contributes to this archive, notably through the inclusion of images from Cudahy’s great-uncle Kenny Gardner.[16] This interplay of personal and collective memory allows Cudahy to recontextualize the past, addressing contemporary issues through a historical lens.[16]
Cudahy has explained that the act of reproducing an image, such as the pixelated digital glitch depicted in Zachary (delayed), and translating it into painting generates a new iteration with its own visual codes and meanings, essentially adding a layer of interpretation and history to the original image.[17] The artist's process of translating an image into a painting becomes a personal interpretation, adding another layer to the image's lineage and signifying the artist's unique perspective on the source material.[18][10][15]
Cudahy’s painterly technique is as important as his thematic subjects.[16] He employs a range of methods — fluid brushstrokes, thick impasto, delicate mark-making, and vibrant patterning — to create compositions that feel both spontaneous and crafted.[5][16] His use of phosphorescent colors, often glowing as if lit from within, give his works an ethereal quality, while his handling of paint serves as a narrative tool in itself.[5][9]
Alongside his paintings, Cudahy produces colored pencil drawings, a medium that reflects his meticulous attention to detail and complements the emotive intensity of his canvases.[5][13]
Career and Exhibitions
Cudahy’s first solo exhibition, Heaven Inside, was at Uprise Art Outpost in Chelsea, New York, in 2014. His early works already demonstrated his signature style: washed-out figures rendered with emotional depth against vibrant, abstracted backgrounds.[1][2][3]
Solo Exhibitions
Spinneret, (2024): Cudahy’s first U.S. museum solo exhibition debuted at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art in Maine,[19] later traveling to the Green Family Art Foundation in Dallas, Texas.[20] Accompanied by a comprehensive monograph published by Phaidon, the exhibition explored five thematic threads—slippages, allegories, fragments, figures, and spaces—highlighting the conceptual and material richness of his practice over the past half-decade.
Fool’s Gold, Hales Gallery, New York, NY, 2024[22]
Conversation, 2023: His first solo institutional show in Europe, held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dole in France, marked a milestone in his international presence.[5]
Double Spar, 2023: A dual exhibition at Hales Gallery and GRIMM in London, this project featured iterative paintings that responded to one another across venues, showcasing his interest in narrative mutation.[23][24][25]
Anthony Cudahy, Flames, Semiose Gallery, Paris, FR, 2021[26]
Coral Room, 2021: Presented at Hales Gallery in New York, this show solidified his reputation for blending personal and poetic elements in masterful compositions.[27]
Anthony Cudahy, The Moon Sets A Knife, Semiose Gallery, Paris, FR, 2021[28]
Anthony Cudahy: Burn Across the Breeze, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY, 2021[29]
Night Paintings, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY, 2018[30]
The Gathering, The Java Project, Brooklyn, NY, 2018[31]
Recent Work, Artha Project Space, Long Island City, NY, 2015[34]
Heaven Inside, Uprise Art Outpost, Chelsea, NY, 2014[35]
Public Collections
Cudahy’s paintings are held in several major public collections worldwide, reflecting their cultural and artistic value.[1][2][3] Notable institutions include:
Anthony Cudahy is a contemporary figurative painter, whose work is bridging historical reverence with modern sensibility.[46][11] His ability to weave together disparate visual languages—queer photography, art history, and personal narrative—positions him as a storyteller of both the mundane and the profound.[47] Critics have likened him to contemporaries such as Salman Toor and Jennifer Packer, yet his voice remains distinctly his own, marked by a romantic attachment to color, form, and the transformative potential of paint.[46] Cudahy’s work challenges viewers to reconsider the boundaries between past and present, individual and collective, offering a vision of art as a living history.[15][6][48]
Residencies
Cudahy was an artist-in-residence at the ARTHA Project, New York in 2013-14.[34]
Further reading
Anthony Cudahy: Spinneret (Phaidon, 2024) – The artist’s first monograph, featuring essays by peers and scholars.[49]
↑ "The Gathering". thejavaproj.com. The Java Project, Brooklyn, NY. 2018. Retrieved March 3, 2025.
↑ "NARSOLIPS". cooler-gallery.com. Cooler Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. November 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2025.
↑ "Anthony Cudahy: EatF_3"(PDF). artguide.artforum.com. Mumbo's Outfit, within Geary Contemporary, New York, NY. April 28 – May 28, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2025.
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