Anthony Cudahy (American, born in 1989) portrays the imaginary daily life of his friends, his husband Ian Lewandowsky, and himself, presenting them as if caught in intimate dreamy scenes. In Cut gaze (2019, oil on canvas) a solitary male figure turns his head against us, likely contemplating his own shadow on a sunny day. Brilliantly playing with patches of color, color contrasts and subtle lines, Cudahy creates a feeling of intimacy and introspection, using a seemingly natural composition that has, however, a solid geometrical setting.

Cudahy’s knowledge of art history allows him to engage in an artistic dialogue with important artists of his choice from the past, like in Washed up on shore (gift from the nothing) (2021, oil on canvas). Inspired by the American artist Thomas Eakins’s beach photographs, Cudahy placed himself in the picture, at the same time quoting, in the washed-up mass, Chaim Soutine’s Still Life with ­Rayfish – which itself is an adaptation of Chardin’s The Rayfish (1725). The painting also references the beach scene at the end of Fellini’s film La Dolce Vita, where a stingray washes ashore and causes dismay. Cudahy claims these references as his own art historical lineage, stressing that art history is always in the making.