Jay Milder (born 1934, Omaha, Nebraska) is an American painter known for his role in the rise of Figurative Expressionism in New York. In 1958, he co-founded City Gallery with Bob Thompson and Red Grooms, aligning with the expressive, figure-based direction of Willem de Kooning rather than pure abstraction. Milder’s work is shaped by Hasidic mysticism, jazz culture from his youth in Omaha, and early studies in Paris with Ossip Zadkine and André Lhote. Influenced by the emotional intensity of Chaïm Soutine, he developed a painterly style that blends spiritual symbolism with bold, expressive figuration.