Brighton Beach Boardwalk Chess Players II

BEST OF SHOW -  Rehoboth Art League's 87th Annual Members Exhibition

This painting is inspired by a photograph I took in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NY, around 2011. Brighton is also called, “Little Odessa.”

It has been the landing place and home of Ukrainian and Russian immigrants since the early 20th century.  In this painting, the men are dressed as if their clothes were more about what was available and affordable, than style. The man in the front wears a velour jumpsuit while the man to the left is in a button down shirt and striped athletic pants. But none of that matters, as they have found a new home, and are engrossed in the game.

Maybe they are all Ukrainian, or all Russian, but I decided that they are both. Both the Russian annexation of Crimea, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were in the future, and these men were just men, from the same region, who had landed in the same town. It was only a game.

As a nod to now, I put both their flags on the back wall, but hid them in plain sight. Once you see them they seem obvious, but no one that I know of has ever noticed them without prompting.

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