Darius Airo and Jim Mooijekind Dense is the first of a two-part international collaboration by the artists, beginning as a series of conversations between Airo and Mooijekind, kindred spirits when it comes to studio practice. Bringing together over 15 works by the artists created in 2023, the show seeks to underline similarities and diversions in the painter’s practices. The artists initially bonded over their mutual respect and admiration of each other’s paintings on social media and began a years-long dialogue about each other’s work and life as an artist in general. Dense acts as a way to trace both artists’ current interest in the abstraction of the figure as a means of exploring psychologically charged subject matter. The figures and forms emerge directly from imagination in both artists’ works on view in the show as the artists create densely populated worlds within their art. Through viewing the works in the exhibition collectively a sense of intentional imagery, new means of exploring figuration, and a strong sense of narrative bleed through each painting.