Cy Gavin

Seven Paintings

IYRS School of Technology & Trades, Newport

25 August - 29 September 2025

curator Dodie Kazanjian

Cy Gavin: Seven Paintings, a show of large-scale site-responsive paintings, will be installed in the historic 1831 stone building on Newport Harbor that houses the IYRS School of Technology & Trades, a school of marine trades and advanced technology that has trained generations of shipbuilders—a resonant venue for an exhibition exploring the enduring relationship between seafaring, myth, and the stars.

Gavin has created a suite of paintings that merge the maritime painting tradition with his signature gestural painting style. More than 50,000 hand-painted stars—far beyond the 6,000 typically visible to the naked eye—serve as both navigational tools and symbolic references to ancestral knowledge, global maritime trade, and the magnetic pull of the sea. The paintings are rendered on actual boat sails, an echo of the exhibition’s harbor-front setting and the artist’s interest in materials steeped in personal and cultural history. Made specifically for the Restoration Hall at IYRS—a cavernous space where large boats are repaired during the winter—the series includes the largest painting Gavin has ever created, measuring 46 feet tall and 26 feet wide.

Gavin’s use of translucent materials and innovative techniques with light creates a striking visual effect: color is perceived both through the surface paint reflecting light and through silhouettes where marks block light from behind, deepening the perceived color. Inspired by the cyanotypes of boat schematics that Gavin saw at the IYRS library, the cycle of paintings alludes to the relentless 24-hour rhythm of ocean travel and the ever-shifting hues of the Atlantic.

Gavin’s practice frequently explores the legacies of colonialism, ecology, and site-based memory. This new body of work extends those concerns into deep waters—both literally and symbolically—bringing the past into luminous dialogue with the present.

The opening dinner for Cy Gavin: Seven Paintings is presented in partnership with Sotheby’s.

About the Artist

Cy Gavin (b. 1985, Pittsburgh, PA) creates powerful paintings that merge landscape, history, and memory. His work often explores sites shaped by historical trauma or cosmic significance,using vibrant brushwork and unconventional materials to create deeply personal and political narratives. After receiving his BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007 and his MFA from Columbia University in 2016, Gavin traveled to Bermuda to research his heritage, creating works that traced the island’s colonial legacy and Black history. Since relocating to the Hudson Valley, he has turned his attention to the natural world surrounding him, painting glacial boulders, eclipses, meadows, and forests in evocative, sometimes monumental formats. His work was featured in the 2022 Whitney Biennial, and he was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Aspen Art Museum. Gavin is represented by Gagosian Gallery

About IYRS School of Technology & Trades

IYRS School of Technology & Trades is a non-profit, post-secondary experiential learning institution in Newport, Rhode Island and is the premier marine trades and modern technology school in the United States. IYRS was founded in 1993 as the International Yacht Restoration School on the Newport harbor front. Since that time, IYRS has grown into a world-class learning institution offering four full-time, ACCSC-accredited programs. IYRS offers education & training programs for people with a passion for thinking and working with their hands. IYRS students go on to careers across a wide range of industries including marine, automotive, aerospace, consumer goods, wind energy, and composites.