How can complex themes be interrogated through straightforward means? In the work of artist Ludovic Nkoth, his figurative paintings at first appear forthright. Prolonged looking reveals a nuanced approach to color, brushwork, and stylistic technique, a place where ideas and emotions emerge.
Originally from Cameroon and presently based in New York, Nkoth maintains a practice that taps into the themes of Black and diasporic experience, heritage, and history, and the psychological boundaries between what is considered the individual and the universal—a boundary his work shows to be malleable and shifting.
On view through March 14, 2026, Nkoth’s painting Stars under the border (2026) is the subject of the “Spotlight” exhibition at the Flag Art Foundation, which presents a single, previously unexhibited or commissioned artwork by a contemporary artist that is paired with a commissioned text from a writer, critic, or poet.
Timed to the exhibition, we spoke with Nkoth to learn more about the background of this specific work and how it reflects his overarching practice.
Ludovic Nkoth, Stars under the border (2026). Photo: Steven Probert Studio. Courtesy of the FLAG Art Foundation.
Can you tell us a bit about your painting Stars under the border on view at the Flag Art Foundation? What was the primary source of inspiration or theme you are addressing?
Stars under the border began with a simple image of people resting together in an open field, but that idea quickly expanded into something more complex, both visually and formally. I kept thinking about aspiration: how it persists beneath systems that try to define or limit us. The title suggests this tension. Stars suggest hope or possibilities existing in an endless veil of darkness, while a border implies a sense of limitation and separation. I’m interested in an emotional space where these two seemingly contradictory ideas can meet.
The figures in the painting are caught in a quiet, rather mundane moment—perhaps in rest or working—yet a psychological weight underlies the scene. Much of my work examines how ordinary life holds profound contradictions, especially for people navigating identity, migration, and belonging. The painting isn’t tied to a specific place so much as a feeling. I wanted it to feel intimate yet expansive, almost like a memory that’s still unfolding.
Ludovic Nkoth, detail of Stars under the border (2026). Photo: Steven Probert Studio. Courtesy of the FLAG Art Foundation.
Can you tell us a bit about how “Spotlight: Ludovic Nkoth” came about? What types of discussions or considerations surrounding choosing which work to display?
When considering a work for FLAG Art’s Spotlight, I really wanted to showcase a piece that sits at the heart of my practice. I wanted a figurative painting that moves between personal memory and collective experiences. Stars under the border encompassed many of the ideas I’ve been working through: world-building, migration, ambiguity, and the emotional texture of everyday scenarios.
When I think about curating work for a show, I’m less interested in spectacle and more keen on psychological presence. I wanted to choose a painting that rewards time, allowing viewers to notice how relationships unfold slowly through gestural mark making, posture, and space. The process wasn’t about illustrating a single clear message; it was about choosing a piece that keeps opening outwards. The context of Flag Art’s Spotlight felt right because the painting feels quiet, yet it invites reflection. It encourages viewers to look closely and find their own position within it.
Ludovic Nkoth, El Consejo (2025). Photo: Roberto Marossi. Courtesy of the artist and Massimo De Carlo.
From a technical standpoint, what does your process look like? Do you work from photographs, have everything sketched and planned out before you start, or is it more intuitive and organic?
My process lives somewhere between a disciplined structure and intuition. I often begin with photographs or found imagery, sometimes layering multiple references to create my own composite, but I don’t see this kind of research as instructions; they’re more like starting points. I’m interested in transforming images so that they lose their literal specificity, thus allowing them to become more poetic or abstract.
I usually sketch loosely to think through composition, but the real evolution of my work happens once the paint is on the surface. Brushwork, shifts in color, and subtle changes in gesture or posture happen intuitively. I try to leave room for surprise. Much of the meaning comes from that push and pull between control and chance. For me, painting is where thinking and feeling meet—where planning and a sense of risk give way to discovery. Towards the end of creating a painting, the image feels like something I arrived at over time.
What do you hope viewers of Stars under the border take away with them?
I hope viewers feel welcomed into a moment that is both particular and expansive. The scene is quiet, almost ordinary, but I like the idea of the painting functioning as a kind of mirror, wherein people can project their own experiences and emotions.
I want to strike a balance between tenderness and tension: the closeness of community alongside an awareness of its boundaries, whether social, political, or emotional. I’m drawn to how resilience shows up in small, everyday moments. If someone leaves with a lingering feeling rather than a fixed interpretation, that feels right to me. Ideally, the painting slows them down, asks them to look a little longer, and maybe reflect on how we share the same sky while living very different realities. Sometimes the world feels impossible, but one has to remember how, at the end of the day, we are more interconnected than we realize.
What do you think the role of painting is in society today?
Painting reshapes our relationship to time. In a world saturated with images and constant motion, painting demands a close read. It positions the viewer to stand still long enough to truly see what’s in front of them. Art creates a physical encounter, a moment of presence, something you remain with rather than scroll past.
I don’t think painting’s role is to declare any truths so much as to open a space for reflection. It allows us to look inwards, at our histories and biases, with tenderness and complexity. Figurative painting, especially, can humanize—it reminds us of vulnerability, of being here together, of the quiet weight of shared experiences. Paintings are able to hold contradictions without needing to resolve them. In that way, painting becomes an archive of affect. Its power lies in its ability to slow us down, and in that pause, it helps us see each other more clearly.
Ludovic Nkoth, Kuti (2025). Photo: Roberto Marossi. Courtesy of the artist and Massimo De Carlo.
What are you working on now, or hope to work on next? Has this painting or project inspired any new ideas?
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about duration and how memory accumulates within everyday, fleeting moments, and how we are able to carry psychological and historical resonances simultaneously. I continue to be drawn to the emotional aspects of interiority, both materially and embodied.
This specific painting, shown at FLAG Art, encouraged me to push further into narrative complexities, building compositions where different emotional registers can coexist without collapsing into a single story. I’m also becoming more deliberate about leaving breathing spaces on the canvas and allowing ambiguity to function as an entry point in my work rather than something I have to resolve.
As I move forward, I’m developing new works that continue to examine the shifting balance between collective presence and individual interiority. Our innate ability to code-switch, especially within shared, public spaces, fascinates me. I’m also consciously reflecting more on my own position in the work, on how authorship, memory, and observation intersect. Each painting feels like a chapter in a longer inquiry. Working on Stars under the border has sharpened my approach to staging group dynamics and the mute intensity that can live within them.
“Spotlight: Ludovic Nkoth” is on view through March 14, 2026.
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