For fellow neighbor Laura Weiss, this untitled painting by her father, Osvaldo Borgia, is more than a work of art; it is a vessel of memory, craft, and enduring presence. Created in 2020 during the onset of Covid, the piece stands as both a late-career expression and a meaningful gift. Borgia had made a small-scale version of this composition years earlier, then recreated this beautiful, larger piece at the request of Laura, which was given to her as a 50th birthday present. Following Borgia’s passing in April of 2025, this painting has taken on an even deeper significance.

 

Painted in acrylic paint and silver gilt on canvas, the work reflects Borgia’s lifelong sensitivity to surface and texture. By trade, he was an artistic fine furniture finisher, widely respected within the design industry of the 1980s and 1990s. That background is evident here, as you can see the layering of materials, the attention to finish, and the delicate balance between the paint and metallic elements all speak to an artist who understood how light and material choices shape the outcome.

 

Although painting was not his primary profession, it was a devoted passion. Throughout his artistic practice, Borgia experimented with different mediums. In addition to canvas, he painted on wood and goat-skin-wrapped wood, utilizing the natural irregularities of each surface to create distinctive textures, bridging his worlds as both finisher and painter. In furniture finishing, surfaces are meant to be touched, lived with, and aged over time as are in his paintings; they invite prolonged looking, revealing their depth slowly.

 

Now, after his passing, the painting functions as a presence, filling the Weiss home with objects Borgia created. Looking at this work and others like it is not an exercise in nostalgia alone, but a reaffirmation of a relationship. Each brushstroke, each textured layer, echoes her father’s creativity and reminds her not only of who he was, but of how he saw the world.