Sam Roeck: Boyfriend: WINDOW, 91 Walker Street New York, NY (corner of Walker and Lafayette Street)

Sam Roeck painted portraits of his ex-boyfriends and paired each one with a likeness of himself. These four portrait-diptychs stand within the long practice of the artist’s self- investigation, mostly using pencil and paper, photography, and, as of late, oil on board or canvas. 
 
The fraught coupling of self and ex-lover adds a surprising charge to the traditional dynamics of portraiture. How to work with a sitter who is intimately familiar, unfastened from earlier frames, who needs to be engaged with afresh? Roeck reflects on the aftermath of these relationships, the friendships that remain, and the idea of “letting go.” 
 
The artist, clearly single, adds two accents to the Window installation: a stack of alternative portrait paintings and two studio chairs, one for the sitter, one for the portraitist. 
 
Roeck studied at The Maryland Institute College of Art and City University of New York, Hunter College, where he also taught. He has had two solo exhibitions at OCDChinatown, a two person show with Alex Kwartler at JDJ, and has been included in group shows at White Columns, the FLAG Art Foundation, Josée Bienvenu Gallery, MoMA PS1, and SITUATIONS.