Episode No. 764 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Louis Fratino.

The Baltimore Museum of Art is exhibiting “Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again” through September 6. The exhibition shows how Matisse — specifically Baltimore’s great Matisse collection — has informed Fratino’s painting. The exhibition was co-curated by Virginia Anderson and Katy Rothkopf.

Fratino, who earned his undergraduate degree at Baltimore’s Maryland Institute College of Art, often depicts intimate personal spaces and experiences, usually by centering queer life and the male body. His work has been the subject of a solo show at the FLAG Art Foundation, New York; he has been included in group exhibitions at museums such as the Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, the RISD Museum, Providence; and the Columbus Museum of Art. His work is well-collected by art museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the British Museum, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the MCA Chicago, and the MFA Houston.

Air date: June 25, 2026.