George Condo’s NYC Two-Step

Art historian Isabelle Dervaux with George Condo discussing his art before a 2024 portrait called Screaming Abstraction at Hauser & Wirth in Soho. Photo by Lisa Freeman.

Please excuse George Condo if he begins to resemble one of the famously shattered souls he depicts in his psychodramatic portraiture; it’s been a dizzying few days. Preparations for a bifurcated exhibition called “Pastels” had him dashing back and forth between galleries in Soho and the Upper East Side before the eagerly awaited openings, which, by the way, took place on the same night.

So there was Condo the other night, exchanging handshakes and hugs with friends and fans at Sprüth Magers’ E. 80th Street townhouse gallery before making a break for the door and jumping in a car for the six-and-a-half mile ride through Manhattan to attend his second opening of the night at Hauser & Wirth’s Soho gallery. Hauser & Wirth could have made the whole thing a little easier on the 67-year-old by hosting his show at their Upper East Side gallery just a few blocks away, but whatever.

The simultaneous exhibitions showcase new works, largely monumental pastels on paper, that reaffirm Condo's position as one of America's most compelling painters, while offering fresh insight into his evolving artistic vocabulary. Known for his "psychological cubism" – a term he coined to describe his distinctive style of fragmenting and reconfiguring the human form – Condo has spent over four decades creating paintings that are simultaneously unsettling and irresistible. His signature portraits, with their grotesque features and fractured perspectives, have influenced a generation of artists and earned him a unique place in the contemporary art canon.

A woman considers Abstract Female Profile, 2025, at Sprüth Magers. Photo by Lisa Freeman.

On the eve of the openings, Condo took time to sit down at Hauser & Wirth with art historian Isabelle Dervaux to discuss his life and work. His process, he said, begins with "trying to use the entire sheet of paper and making sure that I got everything that I want to sort of do on a sheet of paper... and then it starts to formulate itself into some kind of a figure." From there, he says, "it becomes almost like a psychoanalytical exercise to kind of create something that reflects a psychological state of mind." 

Condo's journey to this moment has been anything but conventional. Born in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1957, he emerged from the downtown New York art scene of the early 1980s, where he crossed paths with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. His early career included a stint in Andy Warhol's Factory, and a period in Paris where he engaged deeply with European art history. This classical education, combined with his immersion in contemporary culture, has always informed his unique aesthetic approach.

The artist's influence extends far beyond the traditional art world. His collaboration with Kanye West for the 2010 "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" album cover brought his distinctive style to a mainstream audience, while his work has been collected by museums ranging from MoMA to the Centre Georges Pompidou. Fashion collaborations with brands like Supreme have further cemented his position as a cross-cultural figure who bridges high art and popular culture with remarkable ease.

Condo at Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Lisa Freeman.

Yet despite this mainstream success, Condo's work remains deeply rooted in art’s historical traditions. His paintings reveal the influence of Old Masters like Velázquez and Rembrandt, filtered through the lens of modernism and his own contemporary sensibility. The resulting works are both timeless and utterly of their moment, speaking to eternal human truths while addressing the particular anxieties of our age.

The new body of work presented across both galleries showcases an artist at the height of his powers, yet still pushing the boundaries of his practice. "I want the figures to represent a kind of dystopian reality that we live in and to reflect our times and to reflect our mood and struggle," Condo said. "To a certain degree, the sort of question as to like, where are we and what is happening to this world... They are all to a certain degree, just questioning their own existence." The paintings continue his exploration of fragmented portraiture, but with an increased emphasis on the psychological complexity of his subjects. The faces that emerge from his canvases seem more than ever to exist in multiple states simultaneously – laughing and crying, beautiful and grotesque, ancient and modern.

This duality extends to Condo's technical approach as well. His brushwork alternates between precise, almost surgical detail and loose, expressionistic gestures. "I don't believe in representational art, for example. I think there is no such thing because you can't get into representing reality when everything or anything in reality has its own being... The self of that being is what really tells you what it is." Colors clash and harmonize across the canvas, creating visual tension that mirrors the psychological states he depicts. The overall effect is one of controlled chaos, where every seemingly spontaneous mark is, in fact, carefully considered.

A woman engaging with Chaotic Combustion, 2024, one of the few non-portrait paintings in the dual exhibition, at Sprüth Magers. Photo by Lisa Freeman.

The simultaneity of the exhibitions offers viewers a rare opportunity to see the full range of Condo's current practice. While each show stands alone as a complete statement, together they provide a comprehensive view of an artist who continues to challenge himself and his audience. The contrast between the two venues – each with its own distinct architecture and atmosphere – adds another layer of complexity to the viewing experience.

As contemporary art grapples with questions of relevance and meaning in an increasingly digital world, Condo's commitment to painting and his exploration of human psychology feel more vital than ever. His work suggests that despite all our technological advances, the human face and figure remain inexhaustible subjects for artistic investigation. In fragmenting and reconstructing these familiar forms, he reveals new truths about our shared experience of consciousness and emotion.

Collision Course, 2024, at Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Lisa Freeman.

The dual exhibitions at Hauser & Wirth and Sprüth Magers not only celebrate Condo's continued evolution as an artist but also affirm painting's enduring power to capture the complexity of human experience. In an era often characterized by surface and spectacle, Condo's psychological depths offer a compelling alternative – one that acknowledges our fractured reality while suggesting the possibility of finding meaning within the chaos.

Both exhibitions opened January 29. The Sprüth Magers show runs through March 1 at 22 E 80th Street, while the Hauser & Wirth show runs through April 12 at 134 Wooster Street.

Originally published by Whitehot Magazine.