Nicole Eisenman is a painter who currently lives and works in New York. Though she was born in Verdun, France, while her father was stationed there as an army psychiatrist, Eisenman grew up in New York and attended the Rhode Island School of Design in the 1980s. Eisenman is best known for her loose figurative paintings that address a range of relatable themes of modern life.

Eisenman’s studio in Brooklyn looks delightfully painterly. The artist’s space has a warm, cozy feeling to it – there’s a lot of dark wood, and the slight clutter along with the earthy hues of Eisenman’s artworks lends the whole space a very inviting sensibility.

It reminds me of the studio of illustrator Alan Lee – I can certainly picture a densely packed bookshelf hiding somewhere just outside of the camera frame. The windows, too, have a very old-architectural feel to them, and though it’s hard to say for certain, appear to look out onto some trees – a pleasant view to be able to see while at work.

You can just see the artist’s desk in the foreground, and it looks just as packed as the rest of the space. A pile of brushes, possible with some pens or pencils, seems to spill right off the table surface and the bent lamp speaks of late nights and early morning spent poring over a sketch. Eisenman herself stands on the right side of the photo – to her left is her friend, writer and fellow creative Grace Dunham.

Eisenman worked as a professor at Bard College for about six years, until 2009. She’s been awarded several honors throughout her career, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Carnegie Prize, and the 2015 MacArthur Genius Grant.

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