The Baltimore Museum of Art presents Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again, an exhibition that brings the iconic modernist works of Henri Matisse into dialogue with those of contemporary artist Louis Fratino. Featuring roughly 15 works by each artist, arranged in dynamic pairings and thematic groupings, the show explores a compelling intergenerational conversation that bridges nearly a century of painting. The exhibition is on view through September 6, 2026.

Fratino’s work is deeply rooted in personal experience and a close engagement with the aesthetic traditions of European and American modernism. His paintings and works on paper depict warm domestic interiors and intimate portraits that celebrate queer love, desire, and beauty. A Maryland native, Fratino studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, and spent extensive time with the BMA’s renowned Matisse collection. He was drawn particularly to Matisse’s mastery of line, colour, atmosphere, and the human form, qualities that strongly inform Fratino’s own exploration of the male body and its expressive possibilities.

Organised around key themes of portraiture, domestic scenes, and still life, the exhibition highlights Fratino’s attentiveness to the everyday. By presenting his still lifes and interiors alongside his figurative works, the show underscores the consistency and emotional depth of his practice while placing his work in vibrant dialogue with Matisse.

Louis Fratino was born in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1993. He earned a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2015 and participated in the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship at Yale Summer School of Art and Music in 2014. In 2016, he received a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Painting and Printmaking to study in Berlin.

On view until September 6, 2026, at the Baltimore Museum of Art. By placing these works side by side, the exhibition illuminates a remarkable dialogue between generations, where color, light, pattern, and intimacy resonate across time. Meanwhile this week, the Grand Palais in Paris opens a major retrospective dedicated to the final years of Matisse’s career, showing how the artist reinvented his practice after a life‑altering illness and during the upheaval of World War II.