We’re thrilled to invite you to Citizens, our upcoming group exhibition opening August 14th from 5–8PM at Sculpture Garden by Twelve Chairs Gallery, featuring the work of Bruce M. Gagnier, David Paulson, Thaddeus Radell, and Zura, with a live violin performance during the reception.
The title Citizens reflects a deeper curatorial inquiry: what does it mean to be a citizen—not just of a nation, but of a body, a memory, a myth, or a shared human condition? Each artist in this exhibition approaches the figure as a kind of territory—marked by experience, vulnerability, and transformation. These are citizens of an interior world, citizens of time, of history, and of imagination.
Born in the mid-20th century and rooted in classical traditions, the four artists reimagine the human form through a contemporary, deeply personal lens. Their work is united by a commitment to figuration as a means of emotional and existential inquiry.
Bruce M. Gagnier
Gagnier’s life-size figures evoke Renaissance and classical forms, yet carry a raw, expressive modernity shaped by memory and lived experience. A Guggenheim Fellow and critic at the New York Academy of Art, his psychologically rich sculptures were most recently featured in our spring exhibition Roots.
David Paulson
Paulson's paintings merge figuration and abstraction through bold gesture and layered color. Influenced by the New York School and German expressionism, his emotionally charged canvases reflect his lineage as a student of Leland Bell and Paul Resika. He lives and works in the Hudson Valley and teaches at Parsons and the New York Studio School.
Thaddeus Radell
Radell’s figures are carved from layers of paint, wax, and burlap—emerging slowly through processes of building and erasure. Rooted in myth and memory, his tactile, weathered surfaces speak to time’s passage and the persistence of the human image. His recent solo show In My Beginning Is My End explored themes of transformation and resurrection.
Zura
Zura’s hybrid sculptures—part-human, part-animal—tap into the instinctual and sacred. With roots in the Republic of Georgia and a studio in Brooklyn, his work channels ancient ritual, spirituality, and raw emotional force. As co-founder of Twelve Chairs Gallery, Zura’s belief in beauty, love, and harmony is foundational to this exhibition.
Join us on August 14th from 5–8PM to experience Citizens—a gathering of artists whose figures reflect not only who we are, but how we belong.
