Exhibition

PAUL P.
Sibilant Esses

Ground Floor

Paul P.’s work puts the viewer on intimate terms with the codes of queer representation. Sibilant Esses marks his debut at Greene Naftali, featuring new and previously unexhibited works that span his varied yet kindred themes. Accompanied by a forthcoming catalog with an original essay by Kenneth Silver, this focused presentation mines the formal vocabulary P. has honed over two decades, drawing on both what is explicit and what is hidden in plain sight.

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Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas.  The subject is painted from the neck up in black, white, and gray with a purple and red hue. Their face is front and center, and their eyes are closed. Their hair is light and messy, their eyebrows are arched, their ears stick out, and their mouth is slightly open, its corners pulled into a quiet smile so that their front two teeth are visible.

Paul P.

Untitled, 2022

Oil on linen

10 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches (27 x 19 cm)

Paul P. painting of laundry hanging on a drying line. The right side of the painting is an orange house and the left side is a drying line with a black background. The drying line is depicted by two thin white lines with three rectangular pieces of fabric hanging from it: one is purple, one is blue, and one is orange in that order from left to right. The bottom half of the painting is gray and black with a small area of green to the right.

Paul P.

Untitled, 2024

Oil on linen

13 x 9 1/2 inches (33 x 24 cm)

P. emerged in the early 2000s as one of the leading artists of his generation. His bracing meld of sensuality and conceptual rigor has centered on the painted portrait, with pictures of young men cropped to the neck or chest and rendered in a jewel-toned palette. The faces are not taken from life but lifted secondhand from the archive, copied from a cache of gay pornography that dates to the 1970s—a bright yet fleeting period bracketed by Stonewall and the onset of the AIDS crisis. The head-and-shoulders view P. favors constricts the libidinal pull of the source image, training attention instead on the models’ parallel expressions of youthful reticence and carnal knowledge. His ease with Beaux-Arts technique also nods to the tacit homoerotics of that earlier period, channeling the “panache and glamour” of Sargent’s portraits, the “mist and murk” of Whistler’s nocturnes. P.’s work embraces refinement and even startling beauty, but that desire is edged with doubt: the men’s fates are unknown, and their existence a reminder that certain freedoms may be cyclical, not permanent. P. thus positions his figures, Janus-like, toward layered histories and an uncertain future. “I am searching for analogies,” he has said, “and the touching of hands between past and present.”

Paul P. painting of a cloudy sky with bats on a rectangular canvas. The sky is a mixture of gray, blue, purple, and white, creating the appearance of a dark, rainy atmosphere. There are three black bats: one on the right, one in the center, and one in the upper left corner.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
10 5/8 x 8 5/8 inches (27 x 22 cm)

Paul P., installation view, Sibilant Esses, Greene Naftali, New York, 2024

Portrait by Paul P. on rectangular canvas. The background is a pale pink with a small area of sky blue on the subject’s left. The subject is looking over their shoulder at the viewer. Their skin is the same hue of pale pink as the background with red shadows. Their hair is long and black with red highlights. Their eyebrows are arched and lips slightly parted.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Oil on linen
10 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches (27 x 19 cm)

Paul P., installation view, Sibilant Esses, Greene Naftali, New York, 2024

Paul P. painting on a rectangular canvas split into two sections diagonally. The top section is a solid color of dark maroon and the bottom section is patterned with brushstrokes and a blend of pink, red, coral, maroon, and white.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2012
Oil on linen
8 5/8 x 6 1/4 inches (22 x 16 cm)

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas. The subject is painted front and center on a blue gray background. They have ear length black hair, brown eyes, full lips, dark brown skin with white, black, and reddish brown shadows, and their gaze is directed towards the viewer.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2017
Oil on linen
13 3/4 x 10 5/8 inches (35 x 27 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2012
Oil on linen
8 5/8 x 6 1/4 inches (22 x 16 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2017
Oil on linen
13 3/4 x 10 5/8 inches (35 x 27 cm)

Paul P., installation view, Sibilant Esses, Greene Naftali, New York, 2024

Paul P. painting on a rectangular canvas. The canvas is mostly blue with a layer of gray except the top right corner which is a square of dark navy blue.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2012
Oil on linen
13 x 8 5/8 inches (33 x 22 cm)

Paul P. portrait in a frame. The frame surrounds the painting first with a thick border of white and then with a thin border of black. The painting is a ghostly pale figure with their head turned to the right and away from the viewer set on a black background. Their hand reaches over and across their face, positioned at the back of their head. Their hair is black and is wearing a dark blue V neck top.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Watercolor on paper
13 3/4 x 10 7/8 inches (35 x 28 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2012
Oil on linen
13 x 8 5/8 inches (33 x 22 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Watercolor on paper
13 3/4 x 10 7/8 inches (35 x 28 cm)

Those analogies extend to P.’s work across a wider range of materials and genres, finding cognates for queerness and its subtle expression during eras of criminalization. Oils and watercolors of Venice channel the psychological effects of that sinking city—once a place of refuge for those on the fringes that promised moral abandon and transformation. P.’s Venice is all stucco alleyways strung with clotheslines, cast shadows and dark corners, charged with what he calls a “figurative essence” that saturates the built environment. These twilit depictions of portals and doorways can verge on near-total abstraction: “atmospheres condensed into window-like panels describing an area of light itself.”

Paul P. portrait in a frame. The frame surrounds the painting first with a thick border of white and then with a thin border of black. The figure is front and center from the neck up. Their body is at an angle facing the right and their head is tilted to the left. They have brown heavy lidded eyes and slightly parted lips which reveal a sliver of their two front teeth. They have black hair and light brown skin with a yellow undertone and black shadows. The background is a blurry blend of green on the right, and orange, yellow, and black on the left.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Watercolor on paper
11 1/4 x 7 7/8 inches (29 x 20 cm)

Paul P., installation view, Sibilant Esses, Greene Naftali, New York, 2024

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas. The subject is front and center and is looking slightly down at the viewer. The background is a fiery mix of red and orange, and the subject is painted with black, white, and pink shadows. He is wearing a black collared jacket, has a prominent collar bone just below his neck, and has long wavy hair that appears to be brown.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
13 x 9 1/2 inches (33 x 24 cm)

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas. The background is striped with purple, green, pale green, and a small area of light brown. A man from the neck up is painted in black and white, except for his lips which are pink and slightly parted. His body faces the viewer but his eyes are looking to his left. He has thick eyebrows, a prominent nose, and a goatee. Shadows cover the majority of his left side.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
10 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches (27 x 19 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
13 x 9 1/2 inches (33 x 24 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
10 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches (27 x 19 cm)

Paul P., Untitled (G.B. Jones), 2017

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas. The subject is painted from the neck up and appears to be lying down at a left angle. Their face is painted with pink and white, and the background is black. Their arms are reaching behind their head, their eyes are wide, and their mouth is making an “O” shape. They have long black and red hair, and their fringe falls just below their eyebrows, covering some of their eyes.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
10 5/8 x 8 5/8 inches (27 x 22 cm)

Paul P., installation view, Sibilant Esses, Greene Naftali, New York, 2024

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
18 1/8 x 15 inches (46 x 38 cm)

Paul P. painting on a rectangular canvas. There are four main sections of color; the top sections are squares with the left half being notably smaller than the right half, and the bottom sections are rectangles of almost equal size. The top left corner is a yellow beige, the top right corner is coral, the bottom left corner is yellow beige with a lavender hue, and the bottom right corner is lavender.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2017
Oil on linen
39 3/8 x 28 3/4 inches (100 x 73 cm)

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas oriented horizontally. A man is painted from the chest up in black, white, gray, and blue appearing to be lying down on a creamy white pillow. His gaze is down looking at the viewer, and his left hand is slightly raised with smoke emanating from his fingertips, alluding to a possible cigarette. The background is a dark navy blue and a black shadow covers the right side of his face.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
8 5/8 x 13 inches (22 x 33 cm)

Paul P., installation view, Sibilant Esses, Greene Naftali, New York, 2024

Portrait by Paul. P on a rectangular canvas. The subject is painted bare-chested from the torso up. His body twists to the left and his head is turned so that only the right side of his face is visible. His skin is a mixture of blue, pink, white, and black, the backdrop is red and orange, and his shadow is reflected in black behind him.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
21 5/8 x 18 1/8 inches (55 x 46 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Oil on linen
18 1/8 x 13 inches (46 x 33 cm)

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas oriented horizontally. The subject is painted from their mid chest up and appears to be lying down. Their left hand is positioned on their chest, their head is lying on a maroon pillow cocked slightly to the left, and their gaze is directed up above. Their skin is pale with green shadows, their hair is brown, and the background is green.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
13 x 18 1/8 inches (33 x 46 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Oil on linen
18 1/8 x 13 inches (46 x 33 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
13 x 18 1/8 inches (33 x 46 cm)

Paul P., installation view, Sibilant Esses, Greene Naftali, New York, 2024

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas. The right side of the subject is painted from the chest up. They have dark hair, a rosy face with blue shadows, red lips, and are looking down. Their shadow can be seen reflected in black behind them.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Oil on linen
13 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches (35 x 24 cm)

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas. The right side profile of a silhouette is painted in black with hints of red. The background is cloudy with mostly blue but also some pink and gray. The subject is painted from the neck up looking down. He has short hair that gathers in a curl at the top of his forehead, a small nose, and round chin.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Oil on linen
16 1/8 x 10 5/8 inches (41 x 27 cm)

Painting by Paul P. on rectangular canvas. There are four main sections of color divided into almost equal parts. The upper left square is beige, the lower left square is beige with a pale yellow hue, the upper right square is coral, and the lower right square is an aqua green with a thin layer of black. The colors blend together as they transition from one to the next.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2013
Oil on linen
8 2/3 x 6 1/3 inches (22 x 16 cm)

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas. The background is a cloudy purple with a red hue. The subject is painted from the chest up on their left side. They are looking directly at the viewer, their head cocked to the right. Their hair is wavy, voluminous, and blond with hints of red. Their skin is rosy, their eyes are amber, and dark shadows disguise the right side of their face.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Oil on linen
13 x 9 1/2 inches (33 x 24 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2013
Oil on linen
8 2/3 x 6 1/3 inches (22 x 16 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Oil on linen
13 x 9 1/2 inches (33 x 24 cm)

Paul P., installation view, Sibilant Esses, Greene Naftali, New York, 2024

Paul P. painting of a purple cloudy sky with four bats.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Oil on linen
18 1/8 x 15 inches (46 x 38 cm)

Other ethereal monochromes resemble cloud studies flecked with bats in flight. Like the Symbolist poet and arch dandy Comte de Montesquiou, who adopted the bat as his personal emblem, P. has long been intrigued by this symbol of transience and wayward desire. Inverted, nocturnal, and vaguely threatening, this winged mammal offers him “a metaphor for queer people’s dexterity and irreconcilable difference.” A similar troubling of categories obtains in the artist’s three-dimensional work: sculptures in the form of furniture that resist definitions of each. His finely milled, spindly objects might pass for end tables, yet their scale belies that function, suggesting both the social realm of the interior and other ways it might be occupied. P.’s sculptures derived from the decorative arts look to bohemian designers in Interwar Paris, whose Deco geometries tapped a non-austere vein of modernism. His paired and tripartite pieces can fit together and come apart at will; as with each of his enduring motifs, they “traffic in nebulous sensations of attraction and longing."

Portrait by Paul. P. on rectangular canvas. The background is green, clouded with black and gray. The subject is painted from the chest up. Their body is facing the viewer but their head is slightly cocked to the right. They have dark hair, a 5 o’clock shadow, and are smoking a cigarette.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Oil on linen
18 1/8 x 13 inches (46 x 33 cm)

Paul P., installation view, Sibilant Esses, Greene Naftali, New York, 2024

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas. The subject is painted shirtless from the chest up and looking down. Their right hand reaches for their face. Long platinum blond fringe swoops across their forehead and covers their eyes so only the lips and the tip of their nose are visible. A glow of yellow and white emanates from their hair and coats the surrounding canvas. They are wearing a bedazzled choker on their neck.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
13 3/4 x 10 5/8 inches (35 x 27 cm)

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas. The subject is painted shirtless from the chest up, turned to the right with the back of their head facing the viewer. An outline of their profile shows their eyes and nose, but their mouth is a blur. They have short black hair and brown skin covered with shadows of blue, white, and purple. The background is a cloudy mixture of pink, blue, black, and gray.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
13 3/4 x 8 5/8 inches (35 x 22 cm)

Paul P. painting on a rectangular canvas. The upper left side is yellow with a vertical rectangle of white and the upper right side is red with a horizontal rectangle of sky blue. The lower half is a blend of black, red, and brown. In the center is a vertical rectangle of black.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
10 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches (27 x 19 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
13 3/4 x 8 5/8 inches (35 x 22 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
10 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches (27 x 19 cm)

Paul P., installation view, Sibilant Esses, Greene Naftali, New York, 2024

Paul P. painting of a sky with bats on a rectangular canvas. The sky is mostly blue with some gray, purple, and white clouds. There are four small and distant bats: two on the left, one in the center, and one on the right.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
18 1/8 x 15 inches (46 x 38 cm)

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas. The left side of a silhouette with a cloudy background of gray, pink, and blue. A man from the neck up with fluffy bangs, full lips, and a thin profile that is almost fully covered with shade.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2023
Oil on linen
13 x 9 1/2 inches (33 x 24 cm)

Paul P., installation view, Sibilant Esses, Greene Naftali, New York, 2024

Paul P. watercolor in a white frame. The top half is a blurry blend of mostly yellow as well as orange and a square of purplish white. The bottom half is green with some areas of yellow.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Watercolor on paper
9 x 6 inches (23 x 15 cm)

Paul P. watercolor in a white frame. The top half is a blurry blend of mostly light orange as well as dark orange and a square of white in the center. The bottom half is gray.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Watercolor on paper
11 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches (29 x 19 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Watercolor on paper
9 x 6 inches (23 x 15 cm)

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Watercolor on paper
11 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches (29 x 19 cm)

Portrait by Paul P. on a rectangular canvas. The subject is in the center on a yellow background with blue and red shadows. His body is facing the right and his head is tilted to the left. His eyes are closed and his lips are slightly parted. He is wearing a white shirt with an open red-collared button up. His hair is dark brown and has long bangs that cover most of his forehead. His skin is rosy and has blue, red, and white shadows.

Paul P.
Untitled, 2024
Oil on linen
21 5/8 x 15 inches (55 x 38 cm)

Paul P., Untitled (les chauves-souris), 2024

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