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Michael Kagan is best known for his large-scale oil paintings of helmeted astronauts, Formula 1 drivers, and the machines that propel them. Working with a limited palette of blue, black, white, and red, Kagan builds each canvas with short, aggressive brushstrokes. From a distance, his compositions evoke pixelated photographs or exposed film. At close range, their surfaces dissolve into abstractions. Most of Kagan’s canvases offer close-up views of single figures, but the artist has also created more involved scenes—of the Apollo 15 lunar mission, and of rockets at the moment of takeoff, for example. Kagan earned his MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2005. Since then, he has exhibited in New York, Miami, Seattle, Brussels, and Hong Kong, among other cities, and collaborated with brands including Billionaire Boys Club. Kagan has also painted surfers, mountains, and cockpits.