Artmuse Presents: Valentine’s Day Art Guide

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with art that inspires love, light, and joy. Enjoy our selections of Valentine’s Day art-inspiration!

P.S. Interested in having an artful Valentine’s Day? Give the gift of art—whether it’s an artwork or ArtMuse’s virtual or walking art tours—for an unforgettable Valentine’s Day. Email Natasha, ns@artmuseny.com, for more information.

Exhibitions You’ll LOVE

Double Happiness at The Hole

Double Happiness is a delight for your senses, presenting complimentary works by the artists Caroline Larsen and Roxanne Jackson. Larsen presents a group of intricate still-lives of flowers in their vases, rendered with thickly-lain detailed brushwork that give a psychedelic effect. Jackson presents a group of “punk ware” ceramic vases that feature snarky details. Double Happiness is a sensuous foray into ideas about the essence of these everyday objects.

Through February 14

312 Bowery, New York

Image courtesy of The Hole

Jose Alvarez: D.O.P.A., A Wondrous North Star at GAVLAK Palm Beach

Now on view in Palm Beach, Jose Alvarez presents a beautiful and poetic body of new paintings. Following the recent loss of his partner, Alvarez set off to make works that explore the idea of a state of transcendence that follows the experience of intense grieving. Displaying Alvarez’s visual lexicon of organic forms, these new works are vivid, complex and mystical.

Through February 21

340 Royal Poinciana Way, Suite M334, Palm Beach

Pictured: Our Magic Garden (Second Movement), 2021  | Courtesy of GAVLAK

Art You Will Heart <3

CHRISTOPHER BOFFOLI

For his ongoing Big Appetite series (2003-), Seattle-based artist Christopher Boffoli creates incredibly-clever and imaginative vignettes by staging and then photographing hand-painted miniature figurines among food.

Boffoli says about these works,

“When I began shooting some of the very earliest images in this series around 2003, food was a conscious choice as one of the components of the work as it can be very beautiful – in terms of texture and color – especially when shot with available light and macro lenses. Combining what are essentially food and toys makes the work instantly accessible to virtually everyone. Regardless of language, culture and social status, almost everyone can identify with toys from their childhood.”

XO, 2017

Archival Pigment Ink Print On Metallic Paper

Available in the following sizes: 12 x 18 inches, 24 x 36 inches, 32 x 48 inches, 48 x 72 inches.

Image courtesy of Winston Wachter

STEPHANIE HIRSCH

New York-based artist Stephanie Hirsch works in an abundance of media and materials to create works that push the boundaries between what is traditionally considered masculine and feminine to explore the ideas of self-transformation and awareness. In so doing, Hirsch brings together separate words and images to evoke themes of courage, strength, humanity and renewal.

Here, Hirsch’s Omniscient Heart represents the deep connection between the Self and the larger universe within which we exist.

Omniscient Heart, 2019

Sculpted Heart, Mixed Media

25 x 25 inches

Image courtesy of @stephaniehirschart on Instagram

HEIDI LANINO

This beautiful work is part of Heidi Lanino’s Folded Females series made of metal and folded into the shape of the female form. These elegant and graceful Folded Female works reference the female form in Greek and Roman sculpture as well as in dance and movement. Adorned on one side and left unadorned on the other with crystal gems, the work at hand exhibits both strength and vulnerability—two attributes that can coexist harmonically within people.

Folded Female™; Adorned Unadorned No. 1

Aluminum, black crystal gems

12 x 5 x 4 inches

Image courtesy of @heidilanino on Instagram

ADAM PARKER SMITH

Adam Parker Smith is known for his sculpture and installation practice that turns objects of culture, history and everyday life on their heads (often literally!). Smith’s works are imbued with a joyous sense of humor as he recontextualizes the familiar anew.

With the Petite Shibari Heart series, Smith pairs the classic image of an inflatable heart balloon, which is composed of resin and aluminum, with a knotted rope. In so doing, Smith creates a play of tensions that allude to intimacy itself.

Petite Shibari Heart, 2021 (lavendar and ice pictured)

Resin, steel, urethane, jute

7 x 7 x 4.5 inches

Edition of 20

Image courtesy of ExhibitionA

JEN RAY

New York-based artist Jen Ray’s multimedia practice encompasses painting, performance, sound works, and more to examine gender, power, history and self-determination. Drawing from a wide range of socio-political and cultural references - including feminist science fiction, dystopian theory, seventies glam rock, complex histories and storytelling tropes - Ray challenges perceptions of feminism and, in so doing, encourages discussions about gender, intersectionality, and identity politics.

Kick It, 2020

ink and watercolor on paper

12 x 12 inches

Image courtesy of the artist

ALEX ANDERSON

Alex Anderson redefines the conventional genre of painting by creating clay earthenware he then uses as his canvas. With his recent series of works exhibited at GAVLAK Palm Beach last month, Anderson converged the Greek myth of Narcissus with America’s dark history of blackface and minstrelsy to provocatively question the narcissism inherent to our current culture of TikTok and Instagram. Pain directly references the gazing pool where, according to the Greek poet Ovid, Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection.

Pain, 2020

19 x 21 x 2 inches

Earthenware, glaze, gold luster

Image courtesy of GAVLAK

ROBERT LAZZARINI

Robert Lazzarini designed a beautiful and unique pendant and pair of earrings for love for both of us, a Brooklyn-based company that sells unique and high-end jewelry pieces designed by contemporary artists. Lazzarini’s pieces are fresh, reminiscent of spring and evoke feelings of rebirth, beauty and joy.

Click here to be directed to love for both of us’s website to purchase.

MEIR SREBRIANSKY

Featured in the exhibition “Garden Party” at 81 Leonard over the summer, Emmanuel Werthenschlag better known as Méïr Srebriansky created an array of whimsical resin flowers that brought a blossoming garden to the concrete jungle of TriBeCa. These ebullient works offer unbridled color and joy as odes to the ephemerality of innocence.

Image courtesy of Artsy

NANCY LORENZ

Nancy Lorenz’s stunning pour boxes resemble gift boxes that have been poured overtop with a rich liquid of silver or gold. In making these beautiful objects, Lorenz’s unique process blurs the distinction between fine art’s painting and design. Known for her abstract works that incorporate the beautiful materials of lacquer, mother of pearl and silver and gold leaf, Lorenz’s beautiful works enchant her viewers and expand upon visual possibilities for her materials.

Images: Red Gold Pour Box, 2017 | courtesy of the artist and GAVLAK

FEATURED ARTIST: JESSICA LICHTENSTEIN

New York-based artist Jessica Lichtenstein is known for her beautiful and complex works that dive deep into the play of power, female representation, fertility, fantasy, and objectification in thoughtful and provoking ways.

For her upcoming exhibition at Winston Wachter, Lichtenstein will debut a new series of concrete hearts that are embedded with hundreds of lockets and watches, which are engraved with words from poetry, pornography, Instagram, blogs, newspapers, women’s literature, comic books, and even the artist’s own diary. Inspired by jewelry carved with blanket phrases and ideas such as “hope,” love,” or “breathe,” Lichtenstein seeks to uncover the effect of carving our deepest desires, thoughts, emotions and fears onto these pieces instead.

To see these beautiful works, visit “A Perfect Storm at Winston Wachter,” opening March 4. 

Winston Wachter

530 West 25th Street, New York