Artist Ariel Babinsky completed his career-defining 'King David Series' in 2024 – a collection of 9 miniature paintings, measuring merely 20x15cm (7.9x5.9 inches). In this introspective series, Babinsky highlights the essence of his art: “The more raw and unembellished, the more honest and deep… the viewer becomes a kind of a voyeur, witnessing a personal, intimate moment.”
THE KING DAVID SERIES
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Ariel Babinsky’s extensive practice includes painting, drawing, photography and film. His portraits are collages created with a combination of book pages, torn images, acrylic and charcoal. They depict men, in some levels of undress, their gaze introspective, questionable, raw. It’s a portal into privacy. The viewer becomes a kind of a voyeur, witnessing a personal, intimate moment.
After creating his initial collage, Babinsky then uses acrylic paint and charcoal to layer, highlight or obscure elements of the original image, breathing new life into it, yet keeping it connected to the source material. This process is not just about the act of creation for him. It’s a ritual of preservation, a way to immortalize fleeting moments of beauty and significance that might otherwise fade into obscurity.
Through living in New York City and traveling across small town America, Babinsky gained insight into what his art aims to represent: the most simple moments are actually complex: the more raw and unembellished, the more honest and deep.
Grounded in simplicity – a concept he attributes to his early artistic influences – Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the literary voice of J.D. Salinger – he strives to communicate directly with his audience. Warhol’s immediacy, Basquiat’s instinct, and Salinger’s directness, have all left an indelible mark on his creative outlook.
Ultimately, he’s created a compelling narrative of exploration and reflection. He invites us to strip away our preconceptions and just engage with it. It’s an invitation to see the world without pretense, to find beauty in the mundane, to recognize the complexity in simplicity.
Babinsky refuses to ascribe a fixed meaning to his work. That reluctance is reflective of his belief in the subjective nature of art. He sees his creations as mirrors, reflecting back the viewers’ thoughts, feelings and interpretations. This philosophy underscores his approach to art as an authentic expression of life, devoid of pretense and showiness. In his own words, there’s no inherent meaning in art. It simply is.
“The meaning of the work is whatever the viewer gives it. When you look at a painting, whatever you feel, whatever you’re thinking, that’s the meaning of it.” - Ariel Babinsky