Collection: the figure
Score for Viewing, 1:27, 2026.
A selection of around 150 images of the figure I've spent time with since 2024. It's never too late for an introduction.
Pieces on this page
| Title | Image | Image Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-02-07 | Figure in red outline is lying in / on top of a container roughly in the shape of a hip bone and that registers as some kind of a tub (also drawn in red outline). The figure is surrounded by blue that's in / on top of the container, boneless legs crossed, arm dropped. The background is bright yellow. | |
| 2024-03-13 | Drawing in red outline of a figure in what looks like a tub with water, seen from a diagonal view above against a blank bright yellow background. The figure's bottom half is submerged, with its crossed legs, chest, arms, and head outside of the water. It's something between a person, seal creature, and fish. Two half circle eyes are closed. | |
| 2024-03-13 | Drawing in red outline of a figure levitating above what looks like a cross cut of a hip bone-shaped vessel with water, seen from the side against a blank bright yellow background. The figure, larger than the vessel, is floating in a lying down position, legs crossed, arms dropped and slightly tilted back, half circle eye. | |
| 2024-03-13 | Figure in red outline is drawn loose and contorted with its body lifted up and around with legs crossed, head is anchored on the side of a two dimensional form filled with turquoise, one blobby hand dropped within it. The composition is set against a bright yellow background. | |
| 2024-03-20 | Line drawings of the same figure in three positions, slightly overlapping, spread across the diagonal of a newsprint paper, above a kind of empty three dimensional vessel drawn in red outline. All figures are drawn from a side view, with legs crossed, stubby arms dropped, and a single half circle eye. Top left figure in bright green and brown in a resting position right above the vessel. Middle figure in pink outlines has its head slightly raised. Bottom right figure in bright yellow and orange is moved upwards in a mighty curve. | |
| 2024-03-20 | Figure in overlapping green, pink, and orange outlines is something between person and seal creature: floating above a three dimensional red and orange tub with bright turquoise water. Stubby arms dropped, crossed legs turned upwards, one half circle eye. | |
| 2024-03-27 | Figure submerged and spilling out of a tub-like form with a lip and filled with translucent light blue. The figure has crossed legs, dropped stubby arm, and one half circle for a closed eye. The head is leaning on the lip. The tub and figure are at the bottom quarter of the vertical newsprint page, set against a medium orange layer of pastel that covers most of the page leaving an even frame of the paper itself. | |
| 2024-03-27 | Figure floating over a tub-like form with a lip and filled with solid light blue. The figure has crossed legs, dropped stubby arms, and one half circle for a closed eye. The tub is at the bottom quarter of the vertical newsprint page, set against a very light yellow / coral layer of pastel that covers most of the page leaving an even frame of the paper itself. The figure is at the top quarter. | |
| 2024-06-26 | Monochrome drawing in purple oil pastel on newsprint. A figure drawn in a loose curvy outline is floating above a nearly full tub-like container. The figure's legs are crossed and all of its limbs are falling over. Its eyes are two downward facing half circles. The tub is on a ground of thin long horizontal lines, against a background of broad vertical lines, and under multiple rows of darker horizontal squiggly lines like high frequency waves. | |
| 2025-12-04 | Drawing in mostly monochrome purple with some red and a touch of light orange. An upside down mostly full tub-like vessel with a lip on suggested ground registers as a hat of a minimal head. Two thin red lines outline the shape of the head. Two red upward facing half circles on top of what would have been a liquid register as eyes probably. Broad lines in faint purple radiate outwards around the figure and hat / tub. | |
| 2026-01-09 | Monochrome drawing of a scene in a bluish green. A curvy figure drawn as an outline is stretched across the diagonal plane, its posture doesn't quite make sense. It's floating upwards, head and edge of stubby arm over / under a solid oval surrounded by a ring / lip. Eyes appear closed as half circles. Other arm extends towards a three dimensional cavity in a receding three dimensional grid, with two clashing perspectives. A small butt and crossed stubby legs are over another three dimensional opening in yet another clashing perspective. | |
| 2025-10-30 | Monochromatic red scene in oil pastel. Figure draped over / floating above a container with a large oval opening, situated in a skewed three dimensional space. Wall divided into squares with one square missing. Ground drops into a cliff. Closed eyes forms on head and chest. | |
| 2025-12-11 | A scene in monochromatic dark orange. The head of a figure rests on a detailed and textured lip of something filled with water. The only visible features are two closed eyes drawn as two downward facing half circles. The submerged body is visible to just below the chest, also drawn with similar two half circles. The background is a dark texture with a grid pattern. | |
| 2025-08-24 | Scene in thickly applied layers of oil pastels. A textured light gray, slightly translucent figure is surrounded by teal and stretched inside a cross cut of something that would be a tub but looks kind of like a chariot form. Whatever it is, it's yellow, has a red outline and occasionally recedes into the thick orange background. The figure's outline is a shimmering violet that appears to be carved out of the medium around it. One leg crossed over a very straight and extended leg. One arm falling sideways and back. Two downward facing half circles as eyes. | |
| 2025-08-23 | Layers of oil pastel cover the page and frame it with warm colors. A gray figure with pink outlines is at the center, eyes closed, legs crossed, arm falling. It’s draped over / floating above a hazy dark red object with light turquoise mass. Lines and smudges move outwards from the figure towards the edges of the page. | |
| 2025-10-07 | Translucent grays, teals, and coral colors against a textured layer of scrapes in different sizes, value, and direction. Two long forms with rounded edges begin in top edge and cross each other below it: one relatively straight, the other bent to the right. They are rendered over a solid teal half oval with a thick gray outline and gray volume at the bottom. Coral background with streaks radiating out of the gray form on the left. | |
| 2024-10-30 | Simple figure / droopy form drawn a little below the center of a square panel in thick and faint red line over another form against a ground defined by two short diagonal lines. Stubby legs crossed above the knee and falling over, stubby arm falling over the lip of the bottom form. Light red smudges around the figure and some past scrubbed renderings of the same scene. 5 light red crosses of different sizes scattered in the background around and above the figure. | |
| 2025-05-20 | A scene. Figure drawn in light pink outlines is at center, standing on one stubby leg with the other leg crossed over it, holding a cup with a stubby arm. Eyes closed, wiggly lines rising from cup form. Ground is two horizontal light pink lines. To the right and cropped is a tall and wide container in black outline. To the left above the head is a red rectangle and the letters RD in white against a black background. | |
| 2026-01-08 | Three dimensional scene in monochromatic gray, drawn from a top diagonal perspective. A figure with stubby arms and legs and three pairs of half circles (eyes, chest, groin area) is lying on a surface with supports, head in the air, holding weights up. Two walls have three dimensional cavities in them, a small one on the left behind the head and a large one on right, next to the weight and above the floor. | |
| 2025-10-19 | Scene in mostly monochromatic gray with some detail in color, drawn from a side perspective. A figure drawn with an outline is on a road with alternating dark and light siding. One leg crossed over another, leaning backwards, arms bent at the elbows and extending most of the width of the page, ending in stubs. Three downward half circles are drawn on head, chest, groin area. Squiggly gray lines cross horizontally behind the head and above it. Colorful action lines in teal, yellow, and purple are behind the body. Thick dark orange and thin teal smudge is behind the head. Bright pink stroke starts light in front of the head and ends thick and saturated at the left edge of the page. | |
| 2026-02-14 | Scene in monochromatic light bluish green. Figure is lying / lifting from / draped over something long with a raised back, neck in the air. Both stubby arms fall down in front of the scene. One stubby leg crossed over another horizontal one. Three pairs of half circles are drawn over the head, chest, and groin areas. A three dimensional space in a different receding perspective is behind the figure, with something that looks like a windowsill or edge and some vertical and horizontal slats maybe. | |
| 2026-01-20 | Vertical panel in layers of light greens, yellows, some cyan and pink. A horizontal simple figure with crossed legs is at the bottom of the panel, obscured by smudges and streaks emanating from a large medium yellow form at the center. Long lines move in a large arc between head and legs across the panel's height. | |
| 2026-05-09 | Purple line drawing of a figure covering the majority of a page. The position doesn't make sense, showing front of a disproportionately big face and chest area and a small butt at the same time. The figure appears to be floating or falling. Stubby legs straight up, stubby arms down. Two large downward half circles are the only facial feature. Face also reads like a torso. | |
| 2024-07-29 | Scene in thick blue hues, with pink outlines carved out of it. Curvy figure is floating above a tub with lip / upside down hat with brim in what appears to be a steamy room against a grid of small imprecise squares, almost touching a horizontal line at the top of the page. The figure has two downward facing half circles for eyes, stubby limbs falling down, legs crossed. | |
| 2024-03-13 | Oil pastel drawing in red and black. A figure is seen from the top back inside a container with a lip, butt crack showing. The figure and container are drawn at the center and surrounded by a black oval that transitions into the page around it. |
Bio
Or Zubalsky makes paintings, drawings, scores for viewing, and systems: encounters with silence and hope. They are a 2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and were previously a resident at Pioneer Works (2023), NEW INC incubator member (2023), and C/Change R&D Lab fellow (2023). They live with their partner and child in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn).
Contact
I like getting messages at or@myawesomestudio.com.
Index (incomplete)
| Title |
|---|
| * Collection: the figure |
| * Collection: Recent Paintings |
| Select Works on Paper |
| Select Works on Panel |
| * Unseen |
| Decentered |
| * When a Reference to a Name is Lost |
| * Merge Conflicts |
| Request Deferred |
| * Time Travels: Building a State in the Middle East |
| Meeting Table |