Jennifer Samet interviews painter Glenn Goldberg on the occasion of the exhibition Glenn Goldberg: Other Places at Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, on view through August 16, 2013.

Asked about references to the "devotional" in his paintings, Goldberg replies: "That is one of the greatest things in life: to be devoted to someone or something. At a certain point, I realized that, for myself, art really isn’t about self-expression, or explaining myself, although it is impossible to avoid that. And it really, ideally, doesn’t reflect on me. The best situation is when someone can look at a painting, but it is not important who made it. What’s important is that that painting exists. I want to get out of the way. My paintings are really not about me. I don’t know what one could tell about me if they look at these paintings, other than generalities. It is not about my story or my life; hopefully it’s about something bigger than that."