Tonight, from 6pm to 8pm, is the opening of Scholastic Awards alum Winston Chmielinski‘s first solo show in New York City, Ecstatic Skin. And, we’re super excited about it!

In 2011, Winston was selected to create new works of art in the Alliance’s first artists-in-residency program, the Atelier. The program ran from October thru December, and provided five up-and-coming artists (all past Scholastic Awards winners) with career development workshops, exhibition opportunities, workspace, art supplies, and a monthly stipend. You can learn about Winston’s experience in the Atelier here: From the Atelier: The Artist’s Holy Trinity. Ecstatic Skin will feature Winston’s newest work. To see some of the pieces in the show, click here.

One method that Winston used in creating these new works was to sequentially paint a series of figurative and abstract paintings during one studio session. This fast-paced movement of brushstrokes across consecutive canvases created convergent forms that resulted in paintings that appear to grow into one another. Such effects can be seen in The Canopy Is Falling (see below) and Pause (pictured above) whose shared watery surfaces hint at the possibility of being from the same place but from different scenes.We look forward to seeing them as well as his other new works in person!

The show will be up for a month, so be sure to check it out at some point if you can’t make it tonight.

We hope to see you there!