SAM MOYER-KARDOS
About
Sam Moyer-Kardos is a New York City-based artist who identifies as gender non-binary and queer. Their intention is to paint portraits that put LGBTQ+ people front and center, rather than being silenced by societal norms.
Sam Moyer-Kardos's art borrows from traditional figure painting styles and explores how heteronormative stereotypes carry over into queer relationships.
Their primary interest is queer people and their environments. Faces are sometimes cropped out and the figures are angled in a way to direct the viewer to intimate moments such as the touch between two people. The artist’s goal is to command the attention of the viewer to tender moments that still make a lot of people uncomfortable, despite the progress of the last few decades.
Sam wants to create a moment where the viewer can visualize themselves as the subject of the painting—someone who is marginalized. Most of their paintings represent the reality of the subject, both inviting and addressing a voyeuristic gaze. They’re inspired by the artist Alice Neel, who uses the gaze to present a truthfulness and reality of the unidealized body.
Sam Moyer-Kardos
Untitled (Coca-Cola), 2014
Acrylic on Canvas
60” x 48”
Courtesy of the Artist
Sam Moyer-Kardos
Quinn and Dennis, 2020
Oil on Canvas
60” x 48”
Courtesy of the Artist
Sam Moyer-Kardos
Big Packer Energy, 2020
Oil on Canvas
12” x 8”
Courtesy of the Artist
Sam Moyer-Kardos
R, 2019
Oil on Canvas
30” x 30”
Courtesy of the Artist
Sam Moyer-Kardos
Q, 2019
Oil on Canvas
30” x 30”
Courtesy of the Artist
Sam Moyer-Kardos
My Fingers Are My Dick, 2016
Plaster & Gold Spray Paint
9” x 7” x 3”
Courtesy of the Artist
Sam Moyer-Kardos
My Fingers Are My Dick, 2016
Plaster & Gold Spray Paint
9” x 7” x 3”
Courtesy of the Artist