Anna Zorina Gallery is pleased to present the Nigel Howlett solo show, Pursuit of Truth. The exhibition features the artist’s latest paintings that explore the intersection of humanity and artifice. Howlett’s anonymous figures appear futuristic and synthetic, their metallic or polished surfaces evoking digitally rendered forms, yet their gestures and interactions remain deeply human and emotionally recognizable. Avoiding specific narratives or definitive meanings, the artist invites viewers to interpret each scene through personal experience and perception, presenting truth not as objective, fixed or universal, but as something shaped through reflection, emotional response and social conditioning.
Central to Howlett’s work is the tension between mechanical appearance and human presence. While the figures seem controlled and industrially constructed, each painting is meticulously handmade with translucent pigments and rhythmic stippling. This contrast between manual process and artificial effect suggests the malleability of identity and the ways in which individual perceptions may be shaped by external systems, technologies, and social expectations. The figures appear emotionally contained, but subtle gestures and body language reveal vulnerability, contemplation, intimacy, and isolation beneath their smooth surfaces. In this way, Howlett’s work reflects contemporary experiences of selfhood in which people often navigate between private emotional realities and carefully constructed public identities.
Howlett’s minimal compositions and restrained palette further reinforce the contemplative nature of his work. By reducing visual information and limiting descriptive detail, the artist allows for viewers to project their own interpretations, emotions, and imagined narratives onto the work. Instead of delivering clear symbolic conclusions, the works remain open-ended and meditative, emphasizing atmosphere and psychological presence over narrative certainty. This openness provokes an active participation in the search for meaning. Howlett’s work presents truth not as a fixed answer but as an evolving and deeply human process of personal analysis and perception.
NIGEL HOWLETT (b. 1979, England) received his BA in Fine Art from the University of East London in 2002. His work has been exhibited in international solo and group shows in London, Paris, Hong Kong and Los Angeles. This is his New York solo debut. Howlett lives and works in London, UK.
