The Eye Craves Touch: Why Textured Painting is the New Luxury in New York and Palm Beach

​We live in the era of the "Retina" display. Everything we consume—from the news to our relationships—reaches us through glass surfaces: smooth, perfect, glossy, and cold. But if we look at what is happening right now in the galleries of Chelsea in New York or the art fairs of Palm Beach, we notice a quiet rebellion against that digital perfection. ​The art market is screaming a fundamental truth: we have regained our hunger for materiality. ​As an artist dedicated to acrylic painting and mixed media, I have seen how the conversation has shifted. It is no longer enough for an image to be beautiful; today's collector seeks a physical experience. They look for the artist's "hand." They look for texture. ​The Fatigue of the "Flat" ​The 2025 market reports agree on one thing: there is a massive return to materiality. Following the boom of NFTs and digital art, professional curators are turning their gaze back toward works that occupy real space, that possess weight, layers, and scars. ​In luxury interior design, especially in the sun-drenched residences of Florida or the industrial lofts of Manhattan, the trend is clear: walls need skin. A digital print or a flat hyper-realistic painting "disappears" in a modern room. In contrast, a mixed media work with impasto and relief claims its place; it demands to be looked at not just with the eyes, but with an imaginary sense of touch. ​Why Mixed Media is the Answer ​In my artistic practice, using acrylic combined with diverse mediums is not an aesthetic whim; it is a way to build a three-dimensional narrative on a two-dimensional support. ​When I work with textures, I am creating a piece that is never the same twice: ​The Play of Light: Unlike a flat painting, a textured work interacts with the sun. As the daylight shifts (from the Atlantic sunrise to the urban sunset), the shadows cast by the painting’s reliefs change, revealing new details and depths. The work is "alive." ​Human Evidence: Mixed media—the tearing, the layering, the accumulation of acrylic—leaves an undeniable trace of human action. In a world that fears being replaced by Artificial Intelligence, owning a work where the physical gesture and the artist's controlled imperfection are visible has become a true symbol of status and authenticity. ​Investing in the Tangible ​For the smart collector, acquiring works with a high material load and texture is a bet on longevity. These pieces invite slow contemplation. They force you to get closer, to see what that edge is made of, to wonder how that volume was achieved. ​In my studio, every layer of acrylic and every added material is an invitation to stop the infinite "scroll" of our lives and connect with something solid, real, and handmade. Because at the end of the day, in a digital world, the greatest luxury is what we can feel.