During a visit in 1963 to Europe, Novros visited painted places for the first time. They included the Alhambra in Granada, frescos by Fra Angelico, Giotto, and Piero della Francesco in Italy, Matisse’s studio in Nice, and the mosaics in Ravenna. On his return to the US, Novros began making portable murals that culminated with a fresco commissioned by Donald Judd in 1970 for the second floor of his home and studio in SoHo, now the Judd Foundation. The paintings in the current exhibition, all Untitled and dated 2024 or 2025, are part of this ongoing series.

Novros’s meticulous attention to the materiality of color informs intricate chromatic relationships that unfold within each work. In the recent paintings, right-angular panels interweave on darkly hued grounds. In one vertical, earth-toned work from 2025, panels are consecutively layered to impart a heightened sense of depth. An accompanying group of watercolors radiate with brilliant color relationships.

In Fall 2026, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany, will open the most comprehensive exhibition of Novros’s work to date (October 9, 2026 – February 27, 2027). Over 40 large-format paintings, copper reliefs, models, and works on paper will be presented across two levels of the Gallery of Contemporary Art. The exhibition is curated by Alexander Klar, and there will be a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Klar, Toby Kamps, Matthew Levy, and Ifee Tack.

David Novros (b. 1941, Los Angeles) first exhibited in a two-person show with Mark di Suvero in 1965 at the Park Place Gallery. The following year, Novros had his first one-person show at Dwan Gallery, LA, and was included in Systemic Painting at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; the Dallas Museum of Fine Art; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among other venues. Novros’s works are owned by international institutions, with significant collections held at the Museum Wiesbaden, Germany, and the Menil Collection, Houston. In 2021, Novros’s immersive installation of painted rooms created for the 1975 exhibition Marden, Novros, Rothko: Painting in the Age of Actuality was reinstalled for the first time at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Houston, Texas. The Judd Foundation presented a one-person exhibition of large-scale paintings by Novros in SoHo in 2022. Novros lives and works in New York City.

Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery.