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Some of the artists featured in the forthcoming pages have maintained strong artistic practices for decades, while others are at the beginning of their careers. The aesthetic viewpoints of the artists are as diverse as their backgrounds. It is notable that fewer than twenty percent of the featured artists call Chicago their home.

There was a time not too long ago, where our annual review of artists working in the Midwest was dominated by those who were Chicago-based. This, of course, was not unusual given the city’s artistic history, robust support of the arts, and the presence of world-class educational institutions, including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In the wake of COVID-19, however, and with the ease of communication enabled by our increasingly digital world, it has become clear that having a sustainable and thriving artistic practice no longer requires artists to locate themselves in major urban centers. As is evidenced by this issue, smaller cities like St. Louis, Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Kansas City are now more viable as options.

One of the Chicago-based artists featured in this issue is painter Cindy Bernhard. I first encountered her work at a small group show several years ago, although she first began exhibiting in 2010. In the last two years, interest in Bernhard’s practice has taken a dramatic upswing; as I write these words, her work is the focus of a successful solo exhibition at Monya Rowe Gallery in New York City. Her rapid ascendency made me think: Why…

I write this statement from St. Louis, a city where, like many Liberal blue islands in a sea of Conservative red, our civil rights face an onslaught of attacks—from the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, to the extreme restrictions on gender-affirming care for trans people—and an impending presidential election that too closely resembles the previous one. Far too many individuals in this country are not safe. In a frighteningly divided political era, it feels nearly impossible to find common ground between our disparate beliefs and values. But I am grateful to the artists in this edition of New American Paintings who bravely forge the way through these dark times. I am thankful that we have art as an outlet and artists as our beacons, willing to help us reflect and shine a light on the complicated world unfolding around us.

Painting is a natural medium in which to process our experiences; it’s always subjective and situated in an individual’s perspective and search for meaning. Painting is open; it allows for nuance, subtlety, and interpretation. There is a certain in-betweenness that exists in painting, and in this liminal space is the potential for change, connection, hope, and understanding.

Artists in the following pages grapple with what it means to bridge multiple worlds, to occupy shifting identities, and to find belonging and a sense of self through their work. Andy N Li employs figurative abstraction that blurs any sense of direct representation, creating instead works that thrive in paradoxes and…