Press:

From Edge New York City by Alan Ilagan:

Alpern utilizes time-honored painting techniques while portraying a modern-day sensibility. He is a Picasso of the Pop World, reveling in and condemning our celebrity-obsessed culture and all of its colorful shortcomings. He also poses timely questions on identity, gender, and beauty in his work, challenging long-held notions on what is pretty, and turning traditional representations of male and female forms on their heads.

Each of his pieces tells a story, often many stories - spinning off one another, ricocheting back with new ideas and slants, and creating an ongoing dialogue within and without the work itself. Under Alpern’s touch, the simplest of scenes lend themselves to grandly elaborate tales, replete with psychological back-stories and symbolic gestures of stunning accuracy. He adroitly captures moments of human interaction, invoking those fleeting connections we make as we fumble through life - the awkward laugh of a suitor, the seductive glint of an eye, or the vaguely mournful gaze of a solitary bystander...

Alpern showcases the freaks of the world - our everyday grotesqueries - and his genius is the way he manages to simultaneously criticize and celebrate their uniqueness. His way with color highlights the gaudy and garish nature of many of his subjects, serving to challenge the eye and question where real ugliness begins and superficial delights end.

He will sometimes present a gross distortion of form and figure, yet the expressions and stances remain accessible and universal, and he finds beauty even in his most hideous imagery. The bored countenance of a dinner party attendant or the attention-getting antics of a budding drama queen - these are brilliantly conceived and executed. It’s the eye for clever detail and minutiae of subtle visual cues that may be Alpern’s greatest asset...

Last Update:

May 2024

Tyler Alpern Homepage. Artist Painter

Wild Painter. Vivid, Colorful and expressive paintings. Narrative subject matter. Pop culture, portraits, landscapes, nudes, camp humor, musicians, singers, cafe society, Nantucket, Colorado and historical figures are subjects.

Colorado artist Tyler Alpern paints colorful canvases in oil. Subjects range from pop culture icons to camp humor to nudes and portraits. The work can be very narrative or simply whimsical. Carefully crafted yet expressive and surprising imagery. The power and beauty of paint is just as fundemental as the suject and composition. Wild!

Portraits of Yma Sumac, Peggy Guggenheim, Isadora Duncan, Ethel Merman, Judy Garland, Kitty Carlisle, Jackie Onassis, Dory Previn, Paul Lynde, Truman Capote, Liberace, Bruz Fletcher and more.