Urban Legends

Historically speaking, most artists have felt the pull to move to “the big city” to find inspiration and opportunity, and to be among other like-minded souls.

- CHELSEA KORESSE

George Billis Gallery, Morning Coffee, oil on canvas, 45 x 40%, by David Leonard.

Iconic locales like New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles have been hotbeds for creative types for over a century. It’s easy to see how dynamic cities like these could inspire an artist’s entire career but, more often than not, the city itself becomes the muse.

For anyone that’s lived in or visited a large metropolis, you know it can be a struggle to find even a modicum of beauty among the chaos, litter or graffiti. But within every “concrete jungle,” there are endless nooks and crannies to discover, and a new perspective or experience waiting around every corner—and sometimes all it takes is an artist to bring it all into focus.

George Billis Gallery, Espresso Bar, oil on canvas, 62 x 48", by Stephen Magsig.

Consider artists like Stephen Magsig, who relies on direct observation and photographic reference for his realist industrial landscapes of Detroit and New York cityscapes. Featured in the 2024 summer exhibition Industrial Beauty: Paintings from George Billis Gallery at the Fairfield Museum and History Center, Magsig’s painting, Espresso Bar, is a fine example of his impressive eye for finding and providing a new perspective of city life.

“Magsig looks for crucial details in both the highlights and the shadows, in the brightness and obscurity of each scene,” says gallery owner George Billis. "New Yorkers will recognize many of the scenes Magsig paints, yet the universal appeal is the atmosphere and mood which attracts those for whom the images hold no personal significance.”