The Retired Fire Chief and His Wife

Abeles’ art is highly charged with emotion. He favors the figure in his drawings, paintings, and sculptures saying, “In my art the depiction of the human form is everything.” As a storyteller, Abeles taps into different aspects of the human condition—connecting to a universal experience. By grappling with both the tragedies as well as the joys of life, he fully embraces reality. His artistic philosophy was revealed when he said that intensity, honesty, and empathy are of the utmost importance in his work. In 1976 he wrote, “I constantly seek for a corner to peel back the surface layers, hoping to reveal a bit more than single view point vision.”