Poetry means
to wake up
every day and
make many mistakes
until it’s time
to be unable to sleep
and leave mistakes
uncorrected in dreams
of being almost perfect
– Pedro Pietri

Upcoming Lifestyle is an exhibition of new and recent paintings by André Marcel Pagán. I’ve known André for many years and the one thing his paintings have always communicated to me is loneliness. This loneliness or solitude is not by way of Thoreau ruminating on life at Walden pond. This is more the loneliness in Edward Hopper’s iconic Nighthawks painting from 1942. Four strangers sharing a quiet moment at a lonely diner. Not much has changed since then albeit now we stare at our phones while the void stares at us. André chooses acrylic paint over canvas and linen to depict his urban scenes via soft meditative brush strokes. As if he is saying “yes I’m lonely but it’s ok because we all are”. The lonely evening means a chained up bicycle, a late night dinner at a mexican food truck, football fans watching the World Cup on a large tv installed on a sidewalk in Sunnyside, Queens; a security guard’s humble desk facing a white brick wall with a small painting hung above the workstation as to say, “keep at it and one day you’ll be here too”. Impossibly perfect date nights with a movie projected on a wall; our own private matinee. The day time loneliness is endless rows of makeshift construction sight walls always painted in that beautiful New York City Jenkins Green. A diamond is always cut out of the upper center of each panel. “This could be you” as you stare into the sight of what was, is and will be. At the end of the day we are all coming and going. Some of us do it better than others and André is one of the better ones. Stop, breathe, take in the paintings and maybe you’ll learn something about yourself and still feel lonely.

Fernando Pintado
NYC
October 2026

André Marcel Pagán (b. 1984, San Juan, PR) is a New York City based artist whose paintings examine everyday moments, conjuring a quiet anticipation and absurdity. By investigating the domesticity of familiar places, his work highlights specific, local characteristics of a place. In each image, he focuses on the in-betweenness of home and a nostalgia that lies within and surrounds him. Pagán received a BFA in Painting from Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico.His work has been exhibited internationally, including at The Clemente and Underdonk in New York; Embajada, Hidrante, and KM 0.2 in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Swab Art Fair in Barcelona, Spain; and Ten North Art during Art Basel Miami. In 2026, he presented the solo exhibition Not the Future, Quite Yet at Feria Material in Mexico City.