AGE: 23
BASED IN: New York
Upon first glance, the paintings on view in Lorenzo Amos’s debut solo at Gratin last fall seemed to be the work of at least three distinct artists. Some had the thick mark-making of an Abstract Expressionist canvas, others the aloof composition of a David Hockney portrait. But each of these perspectives converged in a space that is distinctly Amos’s: his living room-slash-studio. It’s there that the quiet and the chaos of his evolving iconography find their footing.
Describe one work you’ve made that captures who you are as an artist.
There’s a painting I just made; it’s of a seated figure that feels like a quiet summary of everything I believe in. The space around her carries as much weight as the figure itself—the wall, the traces of color, the atmosphere between things. I think about painting as a living surface, one that records every movement and hesitation that built it. In that sense, the work is less a depiction than an imprint—paint describing itself, and the world it comes from. That’s what Material Realism means to me: when an image becomes inseparable from the substance that makes it.
Describe your work in three words.
Painting about painting.
Tell us about a teacher who changed the way you think about art.
My friend Alex. He taught me that sometimes the worse you do something, the better it becomes. There’s a freedom in letting go of control. Alex has also tattooed my whole body. It’s an ongoing collaboration between us, part of the same language of marks and mistakes.
What’s an artwork you didn’t make, but wish you had?
Any nice Bonnard. Probably a bathtub or an interior scene.
Imagine someone gives you $150,000 to make anything you want—no strings.
A painting.
What’s an underrated studio tool you can’t live without?
My iPhone.
Is there a studio rule you live by?
9 to 5.
Who are the three people, alive or dead, invited to your dream art-world dinner party?
Andy Warhol, David Bowie, and Nina Simone.
See CULTURED’s full 2025 Young Artists list and access other individual artist profiles here.
in your life?
