Worlds Seen and Unseen - Paintings by Gary Faigin

February 5 - 28, 2026
Opening Reception at Harris Harvey Gallery: First Thursday, February 5, 5-8 PM
After Party at ArtLove Salon, 7-10 PM, 110 Union St., 5th Floor (RSVP requested - click here)

Worlds Seen and Unseen: Paintings by Gary Faigin celebrates the work of the late artist, educator, and co-founder of Gage Academy of Art, Gary Faigin (1950–2025). This exhibition brings together paintings spanning Faigin’s career, illuminating his lifelong exploration of the border between the observed and the imagined. Gary’s final series will be featured along with a mini-retrospective of highlights from his oeuvre.

At the heart of the exhibition is Faigin’s final and most provocative series, Colony—a wry and visually stunning satire on humanity’s impulse to export its familiar lifestyles to alien environments. In these paintings of space colonization, scenes of 1950s suburban bungalows, complete with manicured lawns and pastel facades, are improbably set against the barren terrains of distant planets. “My recent paintings are satires on the idea of colonizing other planets,” Faigin wrote. “What could be more inappropriate than suburban houses from the 50s, complete with ridiculous green lawns and banal designs, plopped down on the gnarly, airless, uninhabitable landscapes of outer space?” Playful and unsettling in equal measure, the Colony series captures Faigin’s characteristic blend of humor, imagination, and social critique. Through his deft handling of light, perspective, and composition, he transforms scenes of absurdity into haunting meditations on human ambition and folly.

Also featured are selections from many of the artist's series from the 1990s onwards, with paintings from the Moving Pictures, Billboard, Concentrated, Tower, Compression Fittings, and Smoke & Mirrors series. This collection of works show the artist's ongoing investigation into aspects of still life, landscape, urban scenery and even steam engines. Even as Gary worked in traditional genres, he enjoyed subverting the expectations common to them.