Faces at JCC Gaelen Gallery
Closes: April 26
Janet Boltax’s powerful oil paintings spring to life in Faces, the current three-person exhibition at the Gaelen Gallery curated by the JCC Art Manager Lisa Suss.
A master figurative and portrait artist, Boltax mostly paints physically big pictures. Here, most are 36 by 40 inches. And, she paints the metaphoric big picture.
“A portrait is always partially the sitter and partially the inner life of the artist,” Boltax said. “What you have inside comes out in the paint.”
For the past 15 years, Boltax has favored themed series. Growing up in Queens with its diversity — 800 languages are spoken — her boundless curiosity about people, especially in the arts and other cultures, saturates her work.
Also a writer, Boltax fully researches, photographs and interviews her subjects. Her printed interviews might accompany her portraits as with the 25 close-ups in her 2020 Reflections on Aging series.
We met two of her drag queen subjects in 2025’s Gaelen Juried Art Show. Last Drag Queen Standing took home the blue ribbon in painting.
“I’m drawn to unconventional lives,” Boltax said. “With drag there is theatricality, exaggeration, sometimes poignancy.”
Three of her oft-painted drag queens punctuate Faces. In John in Reflections, she paints her subject applying his stage makeup. We’re shown his back and multiple mirror images. It’s both an incisive portrait and a metaphor for the interplay of reality, artifice, and art.
Boltax is partially reflected in one mirror, too, carrying forward the Western tradition of artists such as Diego Velazquez announcing their presence. (Velazquez, Lucien Freud, and Alice Neel are all in Boltax’s DNA.)
Celeste’s Shenanigans captures Celeste clowning with a showerhead-as-microphone during a photo shoot. Wearing a scarlet wig the vivid red of tropical plumage, he’s a rare bird indeed.
Mizzy January, face twisted in tension, poses forward in her chair with the energy of a tiger about to pounce. Boltax shows us the artifice–the netting of her extravagant blond wig. The wig tone deepens to the bold yellow of her mini-skirted suit.
Stop here. Boltax’s mastery of color and expressive brush stroke are dramas unto themselves. She paints skin that’s alive in multiple tones.
“I love color,” Boltax said. “I’m always torn between accuracy and the pure expressiveness of paint. I am precise about the face, teaching my students to consider mechanical measurement to get the exact location of each eye. Elsewhere I can be looser, I let go with the paint.”
A visit back to her native Queens for an ethnic food festival led Boltax to her other current subject, documenting speakers of endangered languages who are dedicated to the preservation of these tongues and cultures. She’s collaborating with fellow artist Leslie Nobler on what will be a multimedia presentation with audio recordings. Shown is Ibrahim Traore from Guinea. The inscription in his native N’ko language reads How is your day? Everything is fine.
There are three other compelling speaker portraits. Among them is Ms. Diki in traditional Tibetan dress. Her endangered language message will be added. She projects a lovely calm. She and the other subjects of Boltax’s portraits know who they are. They want you to know who they are, to understand their passions. Bouquets to Boltax for brilliantly capturing the hearts and souls of the many faces of man.
