Installation photo credit: Jeff McLane
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 15, 4 – 6 pm
Vielmetter Los Angeles is excited to announce our Spotlight presentation with New York-based artist Arcmanoro Niles, Times Ain’t What I’d Thought They’d Be: The Stars Don’t Shine Like Before on view from November 15, 2025, through January 10, 2026.
In a new grouping of night scene paintings, Niles transforms images gleaned from memories and fragments of his daily life into bold explorations of color, light, and shadow. The works are presented in a darkened space and accompanied by a recording of the ambient sounds of the artist’s studio at night. The installation marks Nile’s first painting installation, drawing the viewer into a space mimicking the environment the works evoke.
Each of the paintings, depicting different times of night, portrays contemplative figures enveloped in swathes of lustrous color, their features illuminated by flames or moonlight. An elderly woman’s half-open eyes catch the glint of a lit fireplace as she reclines in the foreground, the moon casts its incandescent glow onto the body of a half-dressed man leaning over a sink, and glimpses of someone’s legs warmed by a flickering firepit are rendered in luminous magenta against the dark silhouettes of trees. The individual works act as slivers of a larger narrative that is fleshed out through poetic titles, carefully cropped scenes, and a palette of dusky blues and purples. These seemingly mundane themes become scenes upon which Niles’ explores the possibilities of depicting color at night.
About the artist
Arcmanoro Niles (b.1989, Washington D.C.) received his BFA. from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA in 2013 and an MFA from New York Academy of Art, New York, NY in 2015.
Solo exhibitions of his work have recently been organized at Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY (2023, 2024, 2025); Lehmann Maupin, London, United Kingdom (2022); UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, CA (2020); Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY (2019); Long Gallery, New York, NY (2017); and Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY (2016).
His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including Black Melancholia, Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2022); A Place for Me: Figurative Painting Now, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2022); Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami’s Collection, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; From The Limitations Of Now, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK (2021); Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY (2020).
His work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Aishti Foundation, Jal El Dib, Lebanon; Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, Asbury, NJ; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; Pond Society, Shanghai, China; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China; and Zabludowicz Collection, London, United Kingdom.
