Born and raised in New York City, Paul Resika’s career in art started as at age 9 when his mother encouraged him to take painting lessons. While studying with Sol Wilson as an early teen, he regularly ventured to the rural country outside of Manhattan to paint landscapes and still lifes in the barn of a close friend. It was this friend who suggested that the young Resika seek out Hans Hofmann to further his studies.

Resika began taking night classes at the Hofmann School while still in high school. After a year, he became a studio monitor and attended classes full time, day and night. He then continued his studies at the Provincetown school in the summer.

Resika’s first one-man show was held at the George Dix Gallery on Madison Avenue when he was only 19. As he continued his studies independently during his extensive travels through Europe, he developed a pared-down aesthetic using bold colors and recurring formal motifs that merged the representational with the abstract. These motifs have continued to evolve, and run through Resika’s work to this day. His subjects are drawn from nature and reflect his surroundings, which change with the seasons: In winter he lives in New York; in summer, Cape Cod; in spring he spends a month painting in the south of France. Provincetown piers, fishing boats in the harbor, figures on the beach, and French farmhouses in the countryside emanate a dreamlike serenity and make up the rich visual vocabulary for which Resika has become known.

Resika has exhibited extensively in galleries and museums around the country, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; The National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and the National Academy of Design in New York. He has received many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship.