AIDAN LAPP

About

Aidan Lapp (b. 2000, Los Angeles) is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. His practice is rooted in observation, presence, and the slow act of looking. Working primarily on paper, he creates portraits of friends, family, lovers, and himself that begin as graphite drawings made from life. These intimate sittings—often lasting several hours—capture the immediacy of gesture and atmosphere. Later, in the studio, he layers stains of paint onto the drawings, deepening mood and memory within the surface.

Lapp considers drawing the backbone of his process: not a preparatory step toward painting, but a complete and essential encounter in itself. His goal is not likeness alone but presence—to evoke the residue of a shared moment, the way a body changes the feeling of a room. His work extends a lineage of observational figuration shaped by artists such as Alice Neel, David Hockney, Larry Stanton, and the School of London, while opening space for new emotional truths through material experimentation.

He received his BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute, where he also worked as a printshop monitor and completed fellowships with both Ox-Bow School of Art and Pratt Institute Editions. In New York, his work has been exhibited at Room 482 and AuxierKline, and he curated SOOT: Works on Paper, a group exhibition featuring 30 emerging artists under 30.

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