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Miami Living: Welcome, Ash. Before we dive into Surface and Gesture, can you share a little about where you are in life right now and what’s been feeling most present for you lately? Ash Kolodner: I’m in a period of what I’d call “deep integration.” The last several years have asked a lot of me, not only as an artist, but as a person moving more fully into alignment with who I am and want to be. I’ve been thinking a lot about transformation and the many selves we carry inside us: how identity is lived, how the body carries history, and how perception shifts when one begins to inhabit truth more completely. More and more, I’m drawn to things that don’t resolve cleanly—those in-between spaces, the thresholds, the moments of transition. That’s become a real throughline in my work, both philosophically and formally. I’m less interested in certainty or neat and tidy conclusions and moreso in what it means to be present, and in that emotional charge of “becoming.” That sensibility is very much at the core of Surface and Gesture. ML: You began your creative journey behind the lens. What did painting unlock for you that photography couldn’t, and how did that shift transform your relationship to image-making? Ash Kolodner: Photography taught me rigor. It taught me how to look, how to frame, and how to understand the emotional voltage of surface and light. But painting opened a far less fixed space — one in which meaning could remain mobile, unstable, and embodied. Even the most expansive photographic work still carries a tether to the visible world. Painting loosened that tether. What it really opened up for me was a way of working that comes before language. I could just move through sensation—pressure, rhythm, accumulation, interruption—without needing to explain it. I started letting contradictions exist instead of trying to resolve them into a clear image. And I think my focus shifted too—from asking what an image depicts to asking what it holds… what it transmits in the body, what you feel before your mind steps in and tries to organize it. ML: You’ve mentioned that you work exclusively with a brayer rather than a brush. That’s a striking choice. What does that constraint give you? Ash Kolodner: Yeah, I mean, the brayer isn’t just a tool I use—it really shapes how the work happens. It creates this very physical relationship between my body, the tool, and the surface. It’s about pressure, drag, rhythm, release… not so much about describing something. A brush feels more controlled, more precise. With the brayer, you’re distributing paint across a roller, so the gesture becomes broader, more embodied, more committed. You can’t really fuss over it or overwork it. And that limitation is actually what makes it feel honest to me. I can’t hide in detail. The painting either comes together through instinct and accumulation, or it doesn’t. Over time, that’s become a kind of trust—trust in the gesture itself, and in the idea that the work can arrive somewhere real without being overly worked or refined into it. ML: GAYFACE 1st Class was an ambitious and deeply human project — 500 portraits, nine states, ultimately a published book. What did that experience give you, and how did it shape you as an artist moving forward?