This month we sat down with 22 year old artist Lorenzo Amos, who recently debuted his first solo exhibition at Gratin in New York City. During our conversation, Amos opened up about his new show, his transition from Italy back to NYC, and how he channels his surroundings with authenticity to craft his own unique world. His work reflects his personal journey, incorporating elements from his portraiture phase, his deep connection to music, a fascination with mark-making, and a lasting admiration for Van Gogh.
His exhibition at Gratin Gallery, No Regrets Because You’re My Sunshine—a title he discusses in the interview—is currently on view and will run until December 19th.
LVH: Your most recent show at Gratin in NYC shares your focus on exploring your immediate surroundings. Could you elaborate on this and how your style or subject matter has evolved over time?
LORENZO AMOS: So in the beginning, my work was all about portraiture. I studied Lucian Freud and Rembrandt, but it felt disconnected from my own experience. After moving back to New York, I began to reevaluate my approach. There's a quote by Martin Wong, who’s really inspirational to me – “Everything I paint is within four blocks of where I live, and the people are the people I know and see all the time.” And there's a song by the band The Oblivions called “Live the Life,” which is all about living the life you sing about in your songs. These are all the things I’ve been thinking about a lot for the recent show (at Gratin) and, more generally, as well. I realised I didn't want or need to go out into the world to figure out what to paint - I have everything here. It's a very small, compact space, but this is what interests me. This is who I am. This is what I want to show people, especially for my first show.
LVH: How did your transition from Milan to NYC inspire and impact your work?
LORENZO AMOS: My work has changed massively, but there are still aspects of my time in Italy that are visible in my work. In Milan, and in Italy in general, I got to go see a lot of incredible Italian masterworks, like Giotto's paintings in the church of San Francesco. Actually, I came across a beautiful image in a manuscript once—this tender depiction of two people hugging, which I actually directly referenced in my show in the work The Lovers (Blue Period), 2024. You can also still see the influence of Italy in my colour palette, as I use a lot of colours that were popular in mediaeval or Renaissance times, like lapis lazuli.
In Italy, I didn't really encounter much contemporary or modern art, but now I'm really heading in that direction, exploring more abstract and contemporary works. Which is where New York comes in. New York is buzzing with energy. New York has so many characters and there is the contemporary art world here. Italy has this heavy history, while New York's history is the people that have come to the city.
LVH: Some of your paintings are titled after song titles. What if your relationship to music?
LORENZO AMOS: Music is my big thing. I want to be a musician, but I’m not good at it, so I stuck to art instead. I still take weekly guitar lessons, listen to a lot of music and in general really appreciate lyrics. I write some poetry and I am currently making these poem paintings. Some of my titles come from songs as well, like I Love You But You’re Green (After Vincent) (2024), which is from a Pete Doherty song.
What I’ve looked at is the world of music—the lifestyles, the characters. I paint a lot of musicians too. Every single person I’ve painted represents something about being an artist in some way. Most of the time, they’re professional artists, and that’s what I admire and try to represent.
LVH: Many of your recent works feature people with tattoos. What is it about tattoos that draws you in, and why do they fascinate you as a subject?
LORENZO AMOS: I like painting people with tattoos. I love objects, patterns, and things like carpets and bricks. I enjoy repetition, painting something five or six times until I can really familiarise myself with it. I like marking the walls, leaving a statement like, "I was here. I'm human. I'm a caveman" and tattoos have a similar feel.
Over the years, I’ve been getting a lot more tattoos. When I paint my friends, I often paint them multiple times, and they usually have new tattoos. So I guess I also like the idea of tattoos representing the passage of time.
LVH: Could you tell us about your work No Regrets Because You’re My Sunshine (2024) and its significance as the title of your show at Gratin Gallery?
LORENZO AMOS: The name of the show comes from my friend, Alexander Wolosynski. He's an older brother figure to me: he's a tattoo artist, and he doesn’t stay in one place for long. In fact, he hasn’t lived anywhere for more than a month or two over the past 10 years. He's an incredible artist, very emotional and deeply talented. He’s done some amazing tattoos, and I usually only paint the people that he tattoos. For the past month, he was working out of my studio. Every day around 4 or 5 p.m., he’d show up, and we’d have all these characters coming in to get tattooed. One day, he posted something on his Instagram story—something like, "No regrets, because you’re my sunset.” That really struck me for some reason. He’s someone who fully lives his life, no holding back, and I really admire that. It’s the kind of life I aspire to live. And, you know, then I guess "no regrets, because you're my sunset" sort of evolved into "no regrets, because you're my sunshine."
LVH: I Love You But You’re Green (After Vincent), 2024 and Sorrow (After Vincent), 2024 make direct references to Vincent van Gogh. Can you talk about how van Gogh influences your art?
LORENZO AMOS: He's my favourite artist of all time. He's the realist artist. He was just a miserable guy, and painting was the only thing that could save him and make him feel complete. I’ve read his letters to his brother, where he begs for money so many times. It’s not just the honesty in his letters, where he acknowledges his need to paint, but it is also the way he paints in the most unpretentious, humble, amazing way that resonates with me a lot. He paints all these landscapes, his home, interiors, boots, his chair, because there's nobody around. He wants to paint people, and he keeps talking about it. His paintings are so humble and that's how I want to paint.
