Nir Hod’s latest series, Dorian’s Gardens, on view in Los Angeles at Michael Kohn Gallery merges memory, nature, and art history into immersive, dreamlike landscapes. Across paintings and sculpture, Hod navigates the tension between beauty and decay, exploring themes of transformation, desire, and the passage of time. In this interview, he shares the inspirations, processes, and emotional frameworks behind his work, from reflective chrome surfaces to layered narratives and the quiet landscapes that have shaped his vision.

New York-based Nir Hod – who delves into the duality of human nature as subject matter for his paintings that are achieved through color palettes and relaxed brushwork, and has had solo exhibitions in the United States, as well as having been in numerous group exhibitions here and abroad – plumbs his own psychological depths only to discover what makes him love work and life.

Nir Hod’s new exhibition at Michael Kohn Gallery, Dorian’s Garden (on view through January 2026), is stunning – in the main gallery room are several large shimmering canvases – flowers appear on the surface of what immediately calls to mind Monet’s paintings of water lilies.

New York-based Israeli artist Nir Hod has obviously been bitten by the serpent. A quick search for this term yields only medical treatments and quotes from the Christian bible, no mentions of any colloquial phrases, which is strange because in his 1992 book Liber Kaos, Peter Carroll writes that “The awakening of the octarine power is sometimes known as ‘being bitten by the serpent.’”

On view at Kohn Gallery is the first West Coast solo exhibition of paintings and sculptures by New York-based artist Nir Hod. Hod is known for creating works—from figuration to abstraction—that have a deeper, fundamental meaning. “By telling the truth through beauty you get away with many things,” says the artist.