Now that the Olympics are over, are you missing Milan? In “Easy Lovers,” Jared Freschman sets his own versions of the Quad God in the northern Italian sun. He spent a summer residency in the region, saturating paper with colored pencil that glows on the page like a melted pack of Jolly Ranchers. Inspired by homoerotic Roman statuary, the iconic gay cult film Pink Narcissus and even Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Brooklyn artist offers a languid, luscious vision of la dolce vita that contrasts with his precise lines and orderly compositions. Freschman deploys his rainbow palette evenly and luminously, with a nod to airbrushing and black-velvet posters. Pictures within pictures and almost-hidden references to astrology, pop culture and religion complicate his scenes, while his figures’ blank faces lend them a mysterious distance. Their muscled bodies, meanwhile, leave no doubts about his overarching subject: pure desire.
‘Jared Freschman: Easy Lovers’
On view through March 20 at Hexum Gallery in Montpelier.
This article appears in March 4 • 2026.
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