ART CITIES:Parirs-Jordan Casteel

Over the course of her career, Jordan Casteel has developed a uniquely empathetic approach to storytelling that draws on her own interest in anthropology and sociology, as well as the work of figurative painters including Alice Neel and Bob Thompson. Her portraits are intimate studies enriched with captivating detail, where her subjects’ stolen glances or interlaced hands are rendered with the same painterly care as the subtleties of their environments. Casteel forgoes the formality of the traditional studio sitting – in which power dynamics between artist and model are implicit – and captures her subjects in the very places she discovers them.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery Archive

Jordan Casteel presents “Winter Sun”, a landmark exhibition that marks her highly anticipated debut solo presentation in France as well as the most expansive, comprehensive showcase of her career in Europe to date. Comprising a powerful, emotionally resonant collection of new paintings created entirely in the first half of 2026, the exhibition invites viewers into a deeply introspective world shaped by cold weather, profound psychological depth, and enduring community ties that bind individuals together.

Stepping away from the warmer, high-saturation tones that defined much of her earlier career, Casteel embraces a cool, earthy palette in these new works. This restrained color scheme is directly inspired by the subtle, filtered light found in the depths of winter. The exhibition’s evocative title, “Winter Sun”, carries a deeply personal and layered double meaning, wherein the “sun” serves as a homonymous nod to the birth of her son. This clever linguistic and conceptual fusion seamlessly bridges the macro cycles of nature with an intimate, transformative new chapter of motherhood. Across the gallery, the works meditate on timeless human dualities—dormancy and renewal, hope and grief, love and loss, and light and darkness—transforming the physical space into a sanctuary for quiet contemplation and shared empathy. Heavily influenced by the expressive color theories of painter Beauford Delaney, each canvas is anchored by a dominant, sharp yet sumptuous tone that operates as a powerful vehicle for raw emotion.

Rooted in the monumentalisation of everyday people, Casteel’s artistic practice consistently honors the rich social fabric of her immediate environments. The exhibition features a diverse spectrum of subjects, ranging from a close circle of family and friends to unfamiliar strangers encountered in daily public life, ensuring that every sitter is granted equal dignity and presence. Within the urban sphere, works like “before your time” (2026)—part of her celebrated “Subway” Series—showcase an intertwined family navigating a train carriage beneath a stark transit warning. This composition invokes universal themes of mortality, collective care, and survival within public infrastructure. Meanwhile, in the domestic turn seen in “Weighted (For Clyde)” (2026), Casteel turns her lens inward with unprecedented vulnerability. Depicting herself carrying her newborn against her chest, the artist deliberately lets both of their faces fall beyond the frame, focusing instead on tactile textures, fabrics, and the specific intimacy of touch, thereby loosening the image from mere description to foreground emotional presence and the sacred weight of parenthood.

Since establishing a home in the Hudson Valley in 2021, Casteel has increasingly embraced her rural surroundings, forging a conceptual and poetic bridge between her figurative portraiture and her botanical paintings. Working en plein air with canvases resting on her lap, she treats blooms and bouquets gathered from her own garden with the exact same dignity and individuality as her human subjects. For Casteel, the garden serves as a vital space for metabolizing ideas of decay and renewal in the wider world, with delicate flower heads pressing tenaciously toward the surface amid a cooler palette that signifies the shifting of seasons. Alongside these intimate botanical studies are larger-scale works that engage with the expansive art-historical tradition of the still life. Works like “Memorial (For John)” (2026) echo an ongoing motif from her 2017 Harlem street tributes, transforming temporary floral offerings into modern-day vanitas that give physical form to time, absence, and remembrance. By brilliantly collapsing traditional boundaries between landscape and portraiture, and between urban grit and rural calm, “Winter Sun” stands as a magnificent testament to Casteel’s core philosophy: that amid life’s constant ebbs and flows, the act of witnessing and lovingly tending to our lived environments remains the most profound act of all.

Photo Left: Jordan Casteel, Last Blooms, 2026, Oil on canvas, 182.9 × 142.2 cm (72 × 56 in), © Jordan Casteel, Courtesy the artist and Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery. Photo right: Jordan Casteel, Memorial (For John), 2026,Oil on canvas, 182.9 × 142.2 cm (72 × 56 in), © Jordan Casteel, Courtesy the artist and Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery

Info: Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery,  7 rue Debelleyme, Paris, France, Duration: 19/10-23/12/2026, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, https://ropac.net/