NEW YORK, NY.- Cavalier Gallery will present Paul G. Oxborough: New Works in the 530 W 24th Street gallery. The solo exhibition consists of more than 30 paintings by the celebrated artist, and opens with a reception on Thursday May 1, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. In the artist’s new body of work, each evocative scene finds its ideal scale with canvases ranging from bijou vignettes to grand interiors.


Paul G. Oxborough, St. Regis Bar, Venice, oil on linen, 29 x 36 in. © Paul G. Oxborough, Courtesy Cavalier Galleries. Photographs by Mitch Rossow.

There is a palpable sense of warmth and hospitality in the work of Paul Oxborough; the artist’s affinity for painting bar and restaurant scenes from his world travels is likely not coincidental. In his newest oil paintings, Oxborough welcomes viewers to share magical moments in Venice and London, Tokyo and Havana, New York and Minneapolis. An award-winning portrait artist, he handles his medium with the deftness of the Old Masters, but with a distinctly contemporary flair. Some exhibition visitors will recognize the iconic mural in the King Cole Bar at New York City’s St. Regis Hotel, or the signature red jackets of the bartenders at Bemelmans. Others may find familiarity in Caffè Florian in Venice, London’s Savoy, or Tokyo’s Palace Bar.


Paul G. Oxborough, El Floridita, oil on linen, 14 x 18 in. © Paul G. Oxborough, Courtesy Cavalier Galleries. Photographs by Mitch Rossow.

Like any realist painter, Oxborough’s settings may vary—a hotel lobby, an outdoor café, a legendary bar, a rustic cabin, a swimming pool—but his subject remains constant: a sublime portrayal of light that vivifies each scene and enraptures the viewer. Sunlight streaming through a window; reflections off mirrors, drinking glasses, and chandeliers; overhead lights, streetlights, and even screen light animate the figures that populate his paintings. There is an intimacy and tenderness in the pictures of family members, but Oxborough’s brush also reveals a certain grace and depth of humanity in the faces of those whose stories he does not know. In meeting places frequented by the beau monde, he turns his attention to the workers, the bartenders, concierge staff, and servers whose role it is to create the ambience he seeks to capture, to facilitate moments of celebration and reunion, romance and possibility. After all, he, too, is working. No mere patron of the establishment, the artist is observing intently, gathering visual material, storing memories and sensory experience for safekeeping on the return home.


Paul G. Oxborough, Bemelmans Bar, oil on linen, 36 x 48 in. © Paul G. Oxborough, Courtesy Cavalier Galleries. Photographs by Mitch Rossow.

Back in his studio, Oxborough transforms canvases into exquisite reveries, nurtured by a wanderlust that never ceases to inspire creativity. With each finished painting, the artist presents a glimpse of reality that elicits imagination and invites participation for those who care to journey with this gifted observer of contemporary life.


Paul G. Oxborough, Bartenders at the King Cole, oil on linen, 48 x 64 in. © Paul G. Oxborough, Courtesy Cavalier Galleries. Photographs by Mitch Rossow.

Paul G. Oxborough: New Works remains on view through Saturday, June 7, at Cavalier Gallery, 530 W 24th Street, New York, NY. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm and by appointment. Preview the exhibition at cavaliergalleries.com.


Paul G. Oxborough, Breakfast Chefs, oil on linen, 18 x 22 in. © Paul G. Oxborough, Courtesy Cavalier Galleries. Photographs by Mitch Rossow.