Trevor Warren: Painting with Faith in the Age of Misinformation, Uncertainity and Slop

Installation view, “Trevor Warren: With Two Eyes” showing “Evening’s Net, 2026, oil and acrylic on canvas, 84.5 x 53.5 x 1.5 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gladwell Projects. Photo: Francis Louvis.

By EDWARD WAISNIS June 8th, 2026

A series of six one-person exhibitions*, housed in a former warehouse situated at the center of downtown Jersey City, initiated by Gladwell Projects, helmed by enterprising Founder Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle, includes the solo outing of an extensive selection of recent work of remarkable breadth by Trevor Warren, holding court on an entire twenty-thousand square foot floor.

The initial impact of the raw space puts one in mind of the lauded overtake of a stripped-down floor of a lower Manhattan finance district tower by Christopher Wool, whose purposefully rough-hewed work harmonized with the unpolished surrounds. In Warren’s case, the surrounds are not integral, with the work not holding fast against the decrepit patina(s) against which it is installed with a soft harmony.

Warren’s work is both mired in historical precedents–Ab Ex; Art Informel; the late-Modernist painting resurgence of the 70s–and asserts a twenty-first century claim to the forward guard of an uninfected by AI project. Offering reason for hope at a time of particularly jarring infractions of reason and purpose.

Experience honed through academic studies in his native north-western Washington, followed by professional work in a gallery, both of which imparted exposure to working painters, is discernible amidst subjective allegiances.

Trevor Warren,”Éliane”, 2026, oil and acrylic on sewn canvas, 82 x 133 x 2.75 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gladwell Projects. Photo: Francis Louvis.

Warren”s passion for musique concrete is proclaimed by the title of the momental Éliane (all works 2026, unless otherwise indicated) dedicated to composer Éliane Radigue. Befitting the musical homage, there is a cadence of staves comprised of the narrow sewn-together abutting narrow sections sewn together and sporting a multitude of stain patterns. The ziggurats, formed by uneven terminus of the top and bottom edges give off xylophone bars, piano keys and the tuned teeth of a music box, complementing the musical reference.
 

Trevor Warren, “Theory for Moving House” 2026, 76 x 96 x 2 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gladwell Projects. Photo: Francis Louvis.

All precedent citing aside, Warren is engaged with a formal discipline with a long, soulful, lineage that is a balm to the numbing speed (future shock incarnate) of our reflectively shallow regurgitated connectedness.

With stakes at an all-time high–culturally, socially and politically–hedging one’s bet on the work of the new generation is a bid for continued progress, while carrying history; the stimulus and nourishment is worth the investment.

Trevor Warren, “Seven’s Song”, 2026, oil on canvas, 84.5 x 53.5 x 2 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gladwell Projects. Photo: Francis Louvis.

Seven’s Song, 2026, reiterates the strategies, sans the impasto, with the end result coming closer to Joan Snyder’s sensibility with it’s predominant rosy tinge.

While Cardinal, 2026, expounds on the agitated handling of Theory for moving House. Likewise Evening’s Net, 2026, with a ferocity unique to it, the haphazard stacking of strokes offers the striation of exhumed cross-section.
 

Trevor Warren, “Rubik’s Cube”, 2026, oil and acrylic on canvas, 70 x 75.5 x 2 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gladwell Projects. Photo: Francis Louvis.

One of the canvases the I would categorize as highly romantic–in the tradition of Théodore Rousseau and Casper David Friedrich right down to Per Kirkeby–Rubik’s Cube, 2026, bathed in deep blues and brown instills a nordic stillness fraught with mystery shrouded in the dim. The low horizon twinkles with points of highlight and a seepage of comforting warmth from rosy passages.
 

Trevor Warren, “Brinnon”, 2026, oil and acrylic on canvas 54 x 79.5 x 1.5 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gladwell Projects. Photo: Francis Louvis.

Warren makes another turn with Brinnon, 2026, a topography fever dream pattern comparable to faux marbleization, with stained-glass radiance.

Trevor Warren, “With Two Eyes”, 2026, oil and acrylic on canvas, 78 x 54.5 x 2 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gladwell Projects. Photo: Francis Louvis.

The exhibitions’ titular With Two Eyes, 2026, with a predominant purply-gray wash operating as a semi-transparent veil through which we get glimpses of something between aerial field views and an x-ray of a chest cavity, with connotations of the alchemical notes found in Sigmar Polke atmospheres.

Trevor Warren,  “Key”, 2026, oil on canvas, 79 x 11.5 x .5 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gladwell Projects. Photo: Francis Louvis.

The Zen of John McCracken’s leaning planks is echoed in Key, 2026. Propped up against a pillar, inflected with soothing dry-brush passes and with a mountain range-form outcropping along the bottom edge, a detail in keeping with the scroll-like format.

Among the methods of Warren’s work, one aspect in indebted to Gerhard Richter; specifically, the German masters photographic referential aspect of his oeuvre. Warren foregoes the allusions to reality, instead laying into the soft-focus technique by blurring by smoothing the pigment, during the drying process, through brushing and smearing. Another Light, A Different Sun, 2026, a larger-than-life vertical, is one such example. The madras tones dance among the horizontal smearing evoking a colorful sunset as dusk fades to night.

Trevor Warren, “Another Light, A Different Sun”, 2026, oil on canvas, 80.5 x 53.5 x 1 inch(es). Courtesy of the artist and Gladwell Projects. Photo: Francis Louvis.

All precedent citing aside, Warren is engaged with a formal discipline with a long, soulful, lineage that is a balm to the numbing speed (future shock incarnate) of our reflectively shallow regurgitated connectedness.

With stakes at an all-time high–culturally, socially and politically–hedging one’s bet on the work of the new generation is a bid for continued progress, while carrying history; the stimulus and nourishment is worth the investment.
____________________________________________________________
* Besides Warren’s exhibition, there are five other solo shows installed in the building with each occupying a seperate floor, by: Chunghee Yun; Vamba Bility; Lisu Vega; Chiffon Thomas and Purvai Rai.

Trevor Warren: With Two Eyes
Gladwell Projects
130 Bay Street, Jersey City,  NJ 07302
Through June 14, 2026
Wednesday–Sunday 12-6 PM