I didn’t think Nehemiah Cisneros would be painting on themes of serenity, but here we are, and it’s a direction I wanted to speak with him about. His new solo show, Burning Desire, opening at Charlie James Gallery on April 17th, comes after a turbulent year in the artist’s life, and the paintings appear as a meditation of consciousness and direction. These are works where Cisneros wants to be in himself, at peace, in practice, studying and rethinking his own story and his own place in art. His autobiographical work has always been pertinent to his story as an artist, but there is something different here, something softer, something more personal, a bit more surreal and almost like a Land of Oz type alternate reality.
I wanted to ask Nehemiah about this new direction, away from the comics, graffiti and cinematic nature of his biggest works in years past and how he found a direction for his first major solo show in his hometown.
Evan Pricco: I want to know how you came up with the title of the show, Burning Desires? It feels like, with the work having this softness to it, as opposed to your past work being this cacophony of comic, manga, graffiti, biography and narrative, that the title feels like a dichotomy with the work?
Nehemiah Cisneros: Ultimately, Burning Desires challenges and deconstructs the notion of a “finished” painting, embracing fluidity, revision, and perpetual becoming. Burning Desires is the urge to expand my artistic toolbox both formally and poetically. The new suite of paintings continues my ongoing exploration of collage, narrative, and figuration evident in earlier works, while marking a shift in the process of indirect to direct painting. In addition to the graphic flatness that illustrates my previous work, I am now applying the build up of surface density, and texture through thin layers of pigment. Though elements of flatness still appear, they are employed more intentionally. These works abandon the traditional graphite cartoon layout that once preceded the application of paint. Instead, they begin in what I describe as a “broom to needle” approach, which moves from broad, gestural marks to precise, deliberate details. By introducing chance through paint application, the process takes on an improvisational quality, akin to an open mic night comedy routine, the mark making is responsive, tonal, and evolving in real time, im seeing what lands sometimes leaving an area unfinished on one piece leaves more to be revealed with its sister works.
EP: I would dare say that these works are a departure, but in speaking with you in the past, there is something else here. It's like this is you reflecting on where you want to be, hence the biographical nature of placing yourself in the work, looking in the mirror. It's almost like you are saying to yourself, and us, "Can I, Nehemiah, find peace here?" Where are you right now and how you are challenging yourself in the next phase as an artist?
NC: Revisions of my work made in high school come to mind, I would do these lush water color bases with soft ball point pen contours when I was a teenager, I loved that work. I always felt like it was my alternative to the feminine application of a airbrush. I never adapted to that tool but loved the soothing control it had so I feel like im pulling from that tool box again. Im working on a version of this series on linen right now, where the plane breaks of forms are delineated with colored pencil accents against pooled washes of color, Materiality and play are a current challenge, and not having to make work with the goal of finishing a painting, the goal is to translate emotion into the palette and for the pose of the figures to translate relatable experiences of serenity and awe with the viewer.
EP: What were some of the references you used in this show?
NC: The central figures in these works adopt roles drawn from the history of figurative painting. In one instance, I reenact the pose from Lucien Freud’s, Bella and Esther.1988, positioning myself within an existing visual canon while subtly disrupting it. This act of embodying historical compositions frames the artist as both actor and subject, as way of navigating my place within the broader narrative of painting.
During the process, a documentary on Joan Miró, Theatre of Dreams, played continuously in the background. Miró’s work has long functioned as a kind of anchor for me. His use of primary color and childlike wonder expressed through a language of simplified, abstracted forms provided grounding while I labored through these pieces. Elements of his visual vocabulary inevitably seeped into the work, not as direct reference but as a quiet presence, a kind of talisman woven into the surface of the paintings.
EP: I just want to jump into one work, Reflections. Talk about the cardinal as both a cape and a subject…
NC: In considering how the painting’s sonically, I respond to the idea of a form repeating itself like a musical beat, it gives the image a rhythm. Conceptually it ties to the cardinal painting being a self portrait and a reference to time passing, as the central figure is painting from a cardinal egg as a reference.
EP: You have always made work that was vulnerable, that was a piece of yourself and your story, but this series feels like a different kind of vulnerability, one that really tries to confront chaos in a new light. What did you learn about yourself in the process?
NC: The lights always been there, as I grow as an artist im comfortable with conveying the soul of a painting. How can we experience a painting, rather than the painting explaining an experience?
Considering palette, posture, iconography trims things down with this suite. This new body of work Burning Desires is an example of how a artist’s life is research for their practice, I was on a hike through the Santa Monica mountains recently, where the fires happened, Lord of The Flies was being discussed amongst my fellows as we trooped through the blackened trees, jettisoning visions for my next painting, translating my lived experiences and environments into subject matter for new works is what I’m working on going forward in the studio.
