Ethan Means
Fair Hikes

October 15 – November 14, 2026
48 Ludlow St, New York, NY

Entrance is pleased to present Fair Hikes, Ethan Means’ sophomore exhibition with the gallery, featuring a suite of new oil paintings produced en plein air across New York City and Brooklyn, tracing Means’ routine and surroundings as he meanders across the city he was born and raised in.

He tells you a story of aliens invading the earth

To answer your question, No.
Everything I say is hilarious
a little older, a little more confused.
I'm getting sick but I feel good.

Either you have an incredible memory or you take a picture and finish it in your studio or you learn to paint very very fast.

Ethan is trying to capture the precise detail of something that didn’t happen

Poetic and informative
Weird weekend

Ethan is an unreliable narrator. He is sort of recording and sort of not. He textures a world. Inviting the viewer to look past what actually happened. To find a fantasy. Which he found too. Walking around making paintings outside. He thinks it’s kind of corny. Maybe it is. Half drunk amber glow. Putzing around. He paints his subjects with the meticulousness of a diagram and uncertainty of a dream. 258 lines of prophecy.
150 ways to flex.

Was it ah ? oh ? or merely a groan. And if it did happen it was only for a moment. Simple science. The paintings are warm with a light that is familiar and private. His greens are pervasive. His dark colors sear into the patina of a well worn surface. It hides in the back of our vision.

Focus is misleading. The paintings reward close looking and change like organic material. Similar to his process. Try and fail. Use what you learned from your last attempt. Embedded with the information of a surface that was never meant to be more than edges and misdirections.

Weird poetry of the city
The relationship between light and form

He stays out all night and walks around all day with a paint box he fashioned himself. Now he actually just holds his palette underneath the painting. Notice something and take it home. Remembering mostly the song he was listening to. Secret musical. Where are we going next.

Chewed up horizontals
Temporal anchors of the city.

Distance has no effect unless proximity has first been established. Two drinks is good. Three unleashes chaos. Is the mustache new?

Text by Ethan Kramer

To see your friend who makes comic books while he contemplates leaving the city

You enter your studio only to leave

You get on the bus into town

You get home after the fruitstands close

You remind yourself that you're no better than an animal

Ethan Means (b. 2001) is a painter born and raised in New York. His work draws inspiration from the fleeting and mundane moments of city life, finding poetry and nostalgia in the rhythms of everyday experiences—from commuting to walking the streets at night—Means’ work is engaged in a quiet observation. His practice combines traditional landscape oil painting techniques with elements of abstraction. Tip-toeing around surrealism, Means renders scenes of quiet lyricism within otherwise raw, industrial landscapes.

Means is represented by Entrance, where he debuted with Something Gardens in 2025. Fair Hikes marks his second solo exhibition with the gallery. His recent projects include The White Columns Benefit Auction (2025), Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles (2025), The Salon by NADA & The Community, Paris (2024), and Yes Way, a two-person exhibition with Ethan Kramer curated by Nathan Feniak at Entrance (2023). Means is a graduate of The Cooper Union.

For inquiries, email info@entrance.nyc