How did you picture that, growing up in Israel? As a 12-year-old I fantasized about moving to NYC but of course, had no concrete idea of what it would be like. You knew very early on that you wanted to be an artist in New York. It was carved in my mind at that age as something to aspire to. This ability of an object to surpass time and space and to feel relevant and personal to someone on the other side of the world, to me, was mind blowing. I think it’s not just the emotionality of his subjects but also of him as an artist, which comes through even so many years later. I think for many people he’s their first love, which really speaks to what an incredible artist he was, that he’s able to touch so many people. But my first encounter with something that really resonated with me was Vincent van Gogh when I was about 10. Who were the artists that turned you on to art when you were at school? I started painting when I was very young, around six-years-old, and in between paintings of flowers and the Little Mermaid I’d make copies of Rembrandt etchings and Raphael drawings. Hand signed, dated by year, numbered, and titled by the artist on the back $3,500 - photograph by Garrett Caroll Acrylic and archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Hemp 290 papers. Series of 30 unique hand-painted editions. Proceeds from the sale of this series will be donated to support Visual AIDS, a New York-based nonprofit that utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy.

“The goal is to be free and to do what you want,” he says. Yet, as the artist prepares for the release of his debut Artspace edition Oren and Bennet, 2022, he tells Artspace that such success is largely a distraction. The artist is represented by Victoria Miro he won the The John Koch Award in Art in 2019 he has had his work exhibited at the Frick added to the permanent collections of The Rhode Island School of Design Museum and The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum and just a few weeks ago he broke his auction record, when his painting Amy in her Studio sold for £163,800 ($215,076) at Phillips in London. Deeply versed in art history, but also grounded within a community of like minded artists, including Jennifer Packer, Louis Fratino and Salman Toor, Langberg’s pictures call to mind bygone masters, while simultaneously expressing the day-to-day experience of millions. This Israel-born painter is still in his thirties, but has contributed enormously towards a public impression of homosexual intimacy that is filled with light, love and warmth. More recently, however, it has become easier for many of us to reply to that kind of inquiry, thanks in part to artists such as Doron Langberg. What does queer love look like? Over the past century, that has sometimes been a hard question for both viewers and artists to answer, regardless of whether they’re gay or straight.

Under observation my first love