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Cody Pryseski is a Baltimore-based artist specializing in portrait and  gurative  oil paintings. He takes a humanist approach to painting, believing in the value  of classical, traditional training and techniques. Inspiration is key, but then you  

have to put in the work. His attention to detail and quality compels him to  continually re-work his canvases, until he achieves the right mood. The goal is  to capture the personality, even the psychology, of his subject. 

Willem de Kooning said, “Flesh is the reason why oil painting was invented.”  Pryseski uses the impasto technique, thickly layering his  gures with oil paint.  This brings additional texture to the work, allowing for the artist to manipulate  the play of light and rendering the  gure more expressive. I’ve drawn knowl edge and inspiration from Lucian Freud, Jenny Saville, Willem de Kooning, Mark  Rothko, Chuck Close, František Kupka and Stephen Conroy. (whom he met  when he accidentally stumbled into Close’s SoHo gallery). But his work is most  strongly in uenced by Lucien Freud. Cody saw Freud’s’  rst U.S. show at the  Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1993. The well-worn brochure from that show  remains in his studio today, always close at hand for inspiration. 

Cody grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from MICA in 1996 with a  BFA and maintains a studio in Fells Point.