most days, Artist Adam Dresner He toils in his East Side apartment, creating intricate oil paintings, many of which fetch more than $10,000.
Others, he drags his art cart, which he made himself, to Washington Square Park. In the chaos, he sets up a pop-up studio, complete with a tarp, striped umbrella, and sign, in five languages, to paint park-goers.
“There is no price attached to the activity,” Dresner, 42, told the Post of Park his photos. “I think it would change the whole feeling of it. When people ask, I say it could be anything, including free.”
Using colored acrylics on a 9″ by 12″ canvas, Dresner, in his signature blue hat, paints the object of desire while filling them in with questions about themselves.
Once the final product has been delivered, people usually make a donation at their discretion. Dresner declined to give monetary numbers, but indicated his yield ranges. “You can do a good job,” he said.
But the cash transaction is beyond the point.
Dresner, a lawyer turned artistHe initially started his outdoor sessions in 2018 to hone his painting skills.
“Some people pay money to go to drawing lessons for life, where they hire a mannequin,” the native told the New Yorker. “Or I can go out to the park and people come up to me. They often pay me something for it and tell me how much they like it. It’s about connection.”
These serendipitous interactions led to friendships and led to assignments.
Last year, he caught the attention of “Chinatown Phil,” a popular Instagram creator known for highlighting the unique residents of the Big Apple, who Made a video of the impressive Dresner operation.
And as marijuana enthusiasts filled the Greenwich Village mall on April 20 for “420 Day,” Dresner met Jewelry designer Greg YonaHer clients include Pete Davidson, Drake, and Rihanna.
“It’s unbelievable,” Yona told The Post. “I was just watching him paint three or four people, maybe 30 minutes each. I asked him to paint my friend David Rosa.”
So impressed, Yuna later visits Dresner’s studio.
“I don’t know much about art, but I know it’s supposed to make you feel something. Everything he paints speaks to me,” said Yuna, who commissioned a 40-by-30-inch oil painting of his friend to hang prominently in his office. Now, the pair are hatching future collaborations. .
Dressner has also been recently exploited by Kyle Martino For creating his football game art, including an exhibition depiction of Diego Maradona. And later this month, he will participate in interest auction Placed by his alma mater, Friends Seminary (East Village K-12 Quaker day school), in the prestigious David Zwirner Gallery. His works, which are expected to attract thousands, will be alongside those of major artists such as Alex Katz and Stanley Whitney.
Not bad for a guy who has learned his craft using “Oil painting of dolls” book.
In 2009, Dresner, a Yale Law School graduate, was working at a white shoe company when he picked up a Francis Bacon retrospective at the Met.
“I didn’t know all the art history references, but I was impressed by what I saw,” said Dresner, who at the time was an aspiring writer.
But he always had a talent for drawing.
He illustrated campus newspapers while attending Princeton University as an undergraduate, as well as his grandfather Howard Roy Dresner’s 1998 book, Essays in Bewilderment.
After he left the museum, he immediately bought a doll guide, which whetted his appetite for creativity.
“I enjoyed it a lot,” he said, “and found an outlet for self-expression.”
He painted self-portraits and then turned his eyes on his beloved grandmother Sonia Szejuda Dresner, who became his muse.
“She lived to be 99 and was a child actress, first on radio. She was a violinist and had the most mischievous and charming personality.”
In 2018, after nearly a decade of practicing law, he quit his full-time job to focus on painting — and continued nabbing his family’s matriarch until her death in 2020.
He is currently working on the “Transportation” series, drawing New Yorkers and transporting them to a different environment. Man on the Beach, 72 x 48 oil on canvas, captures a gentleman who usually sits on a beach chair and sells falcon books in Union Square. But Dresner painted him near the shore.
This continuing theme is an exercise in the expressionist painter’s self-reflection.
He said, “I wasn’t sure of my place as a lawyer and I wanted to move myself to another position.”
Until now, he painted himself in a sweet spot.