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Published June 23, 2023

Monumental Moments: Eli Kauffman's Theatrical Oil Paintings

By Kate Parvenski

Kate is the Director of Content for Testudo and a Brooklyn-based multimedia producer with a passion for art and storytelling. Her work focuses on documenting and showcasing artists working across a variety of mediums.

Saturated with luminous color, Eli Kauffman’s oil paintings capture the theatrical and tender experiences of becoming an adult in the contemporary world. Using iPhone photography and film stills from popular television shows as source material, Eli paints dramatic, life-sized depictions of coming of age scenes.

We joined Eli in their Providence, Rhode Island home studio for a conversation on magical realism, working with color, and bringing figure painting to a wider audience.

Image credit: Kate Parvenski
Generally, being from a place like Utah, people only care about landscape painting. So when I can find ways to make people where I grew up care about figure painting, that always feels like a worthwhile challenge and a good way to bring my work to an audience that wouldn't normally engage with that kind of painting.
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Image credit: Kate Parvenski

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