FIGURATIVE ART GALLERY NYC
Reimagining the Figure Through Contemporary Vision
Figurative Art at Arco Gallery
At Arco Gallery, figuration is not approached as representation for its own sake, but as a site of tension—between recognition and transformation, intimacy and distance, memory and invention. We are drawn to artists who use the human figure, or its traces, to explore identity, cultural inheritance, psychological presence, and lived experience. The figurative works we present resist illustration and fixed narrative; instead, they treat the body, the face, and the landscape as flexible structures capable of absorbing symbolism, ambiguity, and formal experimentation over time.
Approaches Rather Than Styles
Rather than defining figuration through schools or movements, we understand it through use: how the figure carries meaning, how it shifts between presence and absence, and how it negotiates its relationship with abstraction. The groupings below reflect recurring concerns within our program, offering different points of entry into contemporary figurative practice.
Symbolic and Narrative Figuration
Francks Deceus · Giuseppe Ragazzini
In these works, the figure operates as a bearer of story, memory, and cultural experience. Bodies and faces appear simplified, stylized, or displaced, allowing symbolism and emotional resonance to take precedence over realism. Narrative remains present, but open-ended—inviting projection rather than resolution.
Between Figuration and Abstraction
Gregory Kitterle · Parris Jaru
Here, figuration is destabilized. The human form emerges and recedes, fragmented by gesture, surface, or spatial ambiguity. These works occupy a fertile middle ground, where abstraction intensifies psychological presence rather than erasing it, and the figure becomes a rhythmic or symbolic anchor within the composition.
Sculptural Figuration
In sculpture, figuration extends as a symbolic and material presence. The human form is not described but invoked, distilled into archetypal presences shaped by material and gesture. These works emphasize continuity across time rather than narrative specificity.
Landscape as Figurative Memory
In this approach, landscape itself becomes figurative—charged with memory, light, and human absence. Architectural fragments, paths, and natural forms operate as stand-ins for lived experience, transforming place into a vessel for personal and collective remembrance.
Figuration Within a Shared Philosophy
At Arco Gallery, figurative art exists in active dialogue with abstraction and photography. Across painting, sculpture, and image-based practices, our artists share a commitment to perception as a slow process and to meaning as something that unfolds rather than declares itself. Whether working through the human figure, the landscape, or the image, they approach art as a way of holding complexity—allowing familiarity to coexist with uncertainty, and form to remain open to interpretation.
Abstract Art - Fine Art Photography - All represented artists
Encountering Figuration at Arco
Arco Gallery is open by appointment in the cultural core of SoHo, New York. We invite collectors and visitors to experience abstraction slowly, through private viewings that allow for comparison, dialogue, and thoughtful consideration of how a work might live in a personal space. Appointments may take place in our loft gallery or online, and studio visits can be arranged when appropriate. To learn more about our philosophy, visit the About page .
BOOK A PRIVATE VIEWING
