Richard Hawkins, "Hotel Suicide" at Greene Naftali

In the mid- and late-aughts, Los Angeles-based artist Richard Hawkins created a series of paintings that combined several themes of his oeuvre—the male physique, desire both sated and unfulfilled, and the historically, culturally, and socially marginalized—in a series of paintings based on the clandestine yet widespread phenomenon of sex tourism in Thailand. Painted in candy-colored hues, Hawkins’ scenes are set alternately in brothels and hotels, dual sites of exchange for his chosen subject matter. Hawkins rendered the prostitutes with exquisite skin and placid faces, whereas patrons are portrayed wrinkled and weathered to cartoonish degree. In some cases, either or both are afforded anonymity with compositions truncating figures to their torsos. The scenes are episodic and incidental, often relating to phases of the transaction at hand—idle displays of detached seduction and ravished hotel rooms.

Duration: Until Saturday March 3 2018

Venue: Greene Naftali

Address: 508 West 26th St , Ground Floor & 8th Floor New York 10001

Cross street: between Tenth and Eleventh Aves

Opening hours: Tue–Sat 10am–6pmTransport: Subway: C, E to 23rd St

Website: http://www.greenenaftaligallery.com