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bio-
evan goldhagen(b. 2003) is a painter currently residing in providence, ri
rhode island school of design (bfa painting, 2025)
egoldhag@risd.edu
ig- @evangoldhagen
statement- 2025
The work can be read through the act of naming—whether this be in reference to a true name along the lines of Ursula Le Guin and Queer Futurism, an exact truth, an undescribable, but, complete truth. Or, in line with the frustration of our unromantic reality, as Maggie Nelson questions, can words ever really be good enough? Is it even worth trying? Maybe the image, the artifice, is an answer.
The work exists as a result of and is the questioning itself, materially and visually explored, open for analysis. Notions of marginality and identification, and comparison are confronted, they ask how we imagine, think, mourn, describe in this in-between space. How do we define ourselves when the language we use to describe the self is already entangled with the other? This is a space where the boundaries blur, where the subject shifts between being an observer and the observed, between voyeur and accomplice.
Identification remains a performance, a queer state of being, a constant reimagining, where identity and subject is not a fixed point but an ongoing negotiation, as is the image and the surface. Material and imagistic abstraction reflects this thought process and this misnomer of naming, of attribution. I am, you are, I could not be, my fault, my grief, my belief, my people…
exhibitions/publications/awards-
2025-
“homecoming” accompanying exhibition to Liz Collins “Motherlode”, skylight gallery, risd museum, opening july 19th
“the last picture show show” memorial hall gallery, rhode island school of design, 226 benefit st, providence ri
“no, painting baby” woods-gerry gallery, rhode island school of design, 62 prospect st, providence rhode ri
“how do you take your coffee”, memorial hall gallery, rhode island school of design, 226 benefit st, providence ri
“from the poison chalice”, memorial hall gallery, rhode island school of design, 226 benefit st, providence ri
2024-
“landscape as... “, memorial hall gallery, rhode island school of design, 226 benefit st, providence ri
“counter cosomogoies”, beb gallery, rhode island school of design, 231 s main st, providence ri
“living urn”, gelman gallery, risd museum
“rubrica”, gelman gallery, risd museum
2023-
“safe in my garden”, gelman gallery, risd museum
“omen to fight, castle in the sky” featured as cover of vol 47 issue 3 of “The Indy”
“summer group show”, brown risd hillel, 80 brown st providence ri
“judaica” brown risd hillel (annual), 80 brown st, providence ri
2022-
“judaica” brown risd hillel (annual), 80 brown st providence ri
“spiritual objects” brown risd hillel, 80 brown st providence ri
2018-
National Gold Medal Scholastic Art and Writing