Tomorrow, Seattle-based Nikita Ares (@kita.licious) will be debuting new works on paper at her show Sugar Babies Only at Specialist Gallery in Pioneer Square. Born in Cagayan de Oro, Phillippines, Ares has lived in Seattle since she was 17 and graduated with a BFA in Fine Art from Cornish College of Arts in 2018.
Though her work is firmly abstract, it's hard not to divine some sort of landscape or frenetic paradise. I want to plant my tent under that swath of red, near that high arch of orange just there in the corner. Her paintings—which are made up of oil pastel, colored pencil, spray paint, and markers— are so energetic and fluorescent that I wouldn't be surprised if they radiate a heat or life-sustaining force.
Ares's color palette is expansive, florid even, incorporating the hottest of pinks, the inkiest of blues, the most acidic of purples, the sweatiest of yellows, the green that grass glows when you've smoked too much weed and have the time to realize nature's beauty. Her paintings are not only vibrant but seem to actually vibrate, hovering above the pages that constrict them. These paintings are the definition of what it means to be pleasing to the eyes—and it looks like she's going to be giving us a lot of it in a salon-style presentation.
Specialist will be open tomorrow, February 7th from 6 pm-9 pm. Swing through and check it out.
