# Spotlight: Arcmanoro Niles – Times Ain’t What I’d Thought They’d Be: The Stars Don’t Shine Like Before

URL: https://vielmetter.com/exhibitions/arcmanoro-niles-2025/
November 15, 2025 — January 10, 2026 · Viewing Room · Artists: Arcmanoro Niles

**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.