Fantasy World

In a show of approximately 22 fresh oil and watercolor paintings, hosted at Stone Sparrow in New York, artist Victor Grasso illustrates his new-found playfulness and embraces his inner child

The show titled Paracosm, “totally relates to where I am right now creating this imaginary world, where I think a lot of artists live in,” Grasso says. “We get to be kids eternally and play with our crayons forever.”

After a successful run at depicting figures and fl ora and fauna in high detail, Grasso is letting loose in this new series, “making images based in fantasy” and tends to create them “by looking through the lens of a child,” he says. “I’ve been telling my friends—I’m 45 this year and it’s taken me 45 years to say ‘it’s not going to be perfect, and that’s okay.’ I’m not toiling over every single brushstroke and it’s okay to flow and not be so tight.”

Grasso also admits that he’s not interested in bold statements but rather, “interested in what swirls around in my head when I close my eyes,” he shares. “The characters in my paintings are characters in a story I’ve been writing my entire life.”