These portraits confront the viewer with a presence that feels ceremonial, as if painted for a rite of passage. Stark black faces emerge from deep gold backgrounds, their intensity heightened by the vivid red and ochre circles stamped across eyes and foreheads.
The markings suggest both shields and symbols, targets that double as halos, hinting at identity, power, and vulnerability all at once. The drips and scratches across the surface add rawness, turning the clean geometry into something weathered and alive.
It’s an image that resists simple interpretation: the figures appear both marked and marked upon, both individuals and archetypes.
Placed in an interior, these canvases dominate the atmosphere. In a dining room where conversation is encouraged, they bring bold energy; in a studio, they can charge the space with intensity; in a modern hallway, they transform a transitional space into an encounter. This isn’t décor. It’s a confrontation, one that insists on being met directly.
