05/10/2026
Mia Goldstein is a Los Angeles-born painter working in New York whose practice explores the spaces, systems, and behaviors that surround art. Drawing from art history, personal observation, photographs, museums, galleries, interiors, and the often unseen logistics of the art world, her paintings look at what happens to artworks before and after they reach the white cube.
Mia grew up surrounded by art. Her father regularly brought her to galleries and museums, and family trips often revolved around seeing exhibitions. She initially gravitated toward drawing because of the control it offered, while painting felt messy and imprecise. That eventually became exactly what attracted her to it.
“I think it’s like a real way to connect with what makes you curious.”
She studied art history at NYU Gallatin while continuing to take studio courses, eventually deciding she was more interested in making paintings than only studying them. She describes painting as one of the few moments in an otherwise fast-moving life when she can be completely present.
“Painting is one of the only times where I’m really alone and settled with myself.”
Her earlier paintings often focused on interiors and the relationship between art, design, identity, and status.
That interest eventually expanded beyond where artwork is displayed to what happens to it in transit. Her exhibition Handle With Care looks at artworks being packed, carried, lifted, shipped, installed, and transported. Mia is interested in the strange choreography required to move objects that are treated with enormous cultural and financial importance. When removed from the gallery wall, an artwork can suddenly become “this big object that has logistics,” exposing an awkwardness and humor normally hidden from the viewer.
“I think my goal is just always to be excited by what I’m painting.”
