Zhenya Gershman, a Moscow-born, bi-coastal painter based in New York and Los Angeles, is opening a new exhibition titled "ICU2" on May 10, the second part of her "I See You" project addressing homelessness. Gershman, who began her career at age 14 in St. Petersburg and now runs Zhenya's Art Academy, draws inspiration from subway encounters, approaching strangers to photograph them and transforming candid, imperfect shots into oil-on-canvas portraits. The exhibition follows her previous activist projects, including a portrait of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a painting of a Ukrainian war victim that sold for $100,000 to benefit the Ukraine Red Cross.
This exhibition matters because it uses visual art to humanize a marginalized population—the homeless—at a time when economic instability and natural disasters like the Florida hurricane and Los Angeles fires have made homelessness a more visible crisis. Gershman's technique, which combines hyper-detailed elements with unfinished passages, aims to create emotional immediacy and challenge viewers to acknowledge those society often ignores. The show's title, "ICU2," doubly references "Intensive Care Unit" and "I see you too," framing the work as both a call for compassion and a direct response to the invisibility many homeless individuals experience.