At the beginning of the new millennium, Sandro Chia — the Italian painter who burst onto New York’s burgeoning Neo-Expressionist scene of the late 1970s and ’80s — left the Big Apple in search of greener pastures… or, more accurately, vineyards. The artist bought a Tuscan winery in 1985, after he received payment for his commissioned mural at Palio, an established Midtown Italian restaurant that closed in 2002. With his son, he turned to winemaking full time, while continuing to paint on the side. Now, for the first time in nearly a decade, Chia will debut new work in a solo show opening February 15 at New York’s Marc Straus Gallery.

Featuring 15 recent paintings and one bronze sculpture from 2000, the show reveals that Chia is still very much a Neo-Expressionist at heart and in practice. His palette, although more subdued than that of his early work, features bold, contrasting colors. His iconography remains limited to the human [white male] figure juxtaposed in its solitude against a landscape or next to an animal. His interests continue to vacillate between universal myth and artistic subjectivity.