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    Natural Motifs Entwine the Monumental Figures of Robert Pruitt’s Divine Portraits

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    “Portrait of Herman
    Smith from Atlantic
    City” (2024), charcoal, conté, pastel, and coffee wash on paper, 84 x 120 inches. All images © Robert Pruitt, courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York, shared with permission

    Natural Motifs Entwine the Monumental Figures of Robert Pruitt’s Divine Portraits

    June 6, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    Through tight, circular marks and soft shading, Robert Pruitt creates portraits that invite viewers into a magical world. Rendered in a mix of charcoal, conté, and pastel, his works are rooted in storytelling and how personal narrative offers insight into broader, more collective questions about Southern culture, rituals, and enmeshed identities.

    The artist brings models into his Harlem studio and photographs them donning elaborately constructed costumes. His drawings emerge from these sessions, although Pruitt prefers a monumental scale. Rendered on paper dyed with coffee, the portraits stretch upwards of seven feet, their meticulous shading and linework backdropped by washes of the characteristically warm hue.

    “Eve hiding in the Garden of Eden” (2024), charcoal, conté, pastel, and coffee wash on paper, 84 x 60 inches

    A recent self-portrait presents the artist in his signature novelty glasses, the swirling X-Ray lenses resting on his forehead. His hands, rather than his face, are the subject of this ten-foot-wide work, and each wears gold jewelry, his hometown represented on a Houston Rockets ring. The title nods to the character of Herman Smith, played by Richard Pryor in the 1978 retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wiz.

    Adornment is prominent in Pruitt’s works and serves a dual purpose: it provides a means to excavate questions about identity, culture, place, and time and also offers a chance to find something “fun and weird to draw,” he says. Recurring motifs like lemons, mushrooms, snakes, and birds are a more recent addition to his portraits, and they often envelop the central figure. In “Princess with a plague of Grackles,” for example, the quintessential Texan creature perches on a seated woman’s shoulders and arms.

    “Lately, I’ve been thinking more about the body as continuous with the world. Our bodies take things in, let things out—and that process, to me, signals a kind of equality with everything around us,” Pruitt tells Colossal.

    “Figure Crowned in T.S.U. Ceramic Headdress (After Roy Vinson Thomas)” (2024), charcoal, conté, coffee wash on paper, 84 x 60 inches

    Connecting to nature also invokes the divine and alludes to the artist’s constellation of references, whether it be his interest in science fiction, comic books, music, or his enduring love for “swampy, humid Houston, Texas,” he adds.

    I think part of it is nostalgia, especially in contrast to my life now in New York City. I miss home…On some level, these works feel like staging grounds for my own origin story—coming from a complicated metropolis that also feels deeply rural. A kind of Eden, but one filled with mosquitoes and stray dogs. Nature not as cute or comforting but indifferent—and still sacred.

    If you’re in New York, you can see Pruitt’s work in a solo exhibition named after a Sun Ra libretto, …Son…Sun…Sin…Syn…zen…Zenith, at Salon 94. Find more from the artist on his website and Instagram.

    “Lemon Tree” (2024), conté, pastel, and coffee wash, 84 x 60 inches. Photo by Brica Wilcox, courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles

    “Princess with a plague of Grackles” (2024), charcoal, conté, pastel, and coffee wash on paper, 84 x 60 inches

    “Y’all Are Just Gon Have to Make Amends” (2021), conté, charcoal, and pastel on coffee wash on paper, 87 1/4 x 63 1/8 x 2 inches. Photo by Dan Bradica

    “Man born with a veil” (2024), charcoal, conté, pastel, and fabric dye on paper, 84 x 60 inches

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      Literary Citations Abound in Andrew Salgado’s Vibrantly Layered Portraits

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      “When We Cease To Understand The World (Grothendieck’s Ghost)”(2025), oil and oil pastel on linen, 180 x 160 centimeters. All images courtesy of Damian Griffiths and BEERS London, shared with permission

      Literary Citations Abound in Andrew Salgado’s Vibrantly Layered Portraits

      June 4, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      A new body of work by Andrew Salgado (previously) unfurls from a central premise: we are the books we read. The artist, who works between London and New Brunswick, Canada, is literarily insatiable and considers every unread tome an opportunity of “infinite possibility.”

      At BEERS London, Salgado’s Self-Portrait as a Stack of Books presents a series of paintings that open like chapters and together, build a larger narrative. “My Year Of Rest And Relaxation” directly references Ottessa Moshfegh’s bleary novel of the same name and depicts a young protagonist inert and detached. There’s also “Véra (Please Come Over, You’re Always Welcome),” which portrays a resolute Véra Nabokov writing what might be one of her since destroyed letters.

      “Véra (Please Come Over, You’re Always Welcome)” (2025), oil and oil pastel on linen, 76 x 61 centimeters

      Salgado is continually interested in citation and the ways that memories and experiences layer atop and mold one another. Many of the authors he’s drawn to—Virgina Woolf, Jorge Luis Borges, and Margaret Atwood among them— “are influenced by art. By music and painting. They write about it all the time. The word is ekphrasis,” he adds. “Nabokov lists over 150 paintings in his collected works. So why shouldn’t the inverse also be true?”

      Intuitive marks of oil paint and pastel characterize Salgado’s works and seem to build up over time. Irregular stripes and circles add greater depth and dimension to patches of color delineating a dress or facial feature, leaving each scene with a certain indeterminacy. Allowing for interpretation and an array of personal references is essential to the artist’s thinking: “It’s ready for the taking. And whatever you take from it—from the books, or the paintings, or the ideas within—it’s all right. It’s all correct. There are no wrong answers,” he says.

      Self-Portrait as a Stack of Books is on view through June 28. Find more on Salgado’s website and Instagram.

      “My Year Of Rest And Relaxation” (2025), oil and oil pastel on linen, 90 x 100 centimeters

      “St. Augustine’s Confessions” (2025), oil and oil pastel on linen, 160 x 125 centimeters

      “Hotel Du Lac” (2025), oil and oil pastel on linen, 152 x 117 centimeters

      “Meditations” (Sayings, Speeches, Notes) (2025), oil and oil pastel on linen, 150 x 120 centimeters

      “The Last Evening On Earth” (2025), oil and oil pastel on linen, 125 x 100 centimeters

      “Beware of Pity” (2025), oil and oil pastel on linen, 80 x 75 centimeters

      “The Aleph & Other Stories” (2025), oil and oil pastel on linen, 216 x 164 centimeters

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    • 175 Shares58 Views

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      Mario Moore’s Oil Paintings Bridge Past and Present to Spotlight Black Resilience and Style

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      “Pillars” (2024), oil on linen, 84 x 96 inches. All images courtesy of Mario Moore and Library Street Collective, shared with permission

      Mario Moore’s Oil Paintings Bridge Past and Present to Spotlight Black Resilience and Style

      June 4, 2025

      ArtHistorySocial Issues

      Kate Mothes

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      In large-scale works in oil, Detroit-based artist Mario Moore taps into the legacy of European painting traditions to create bold portraits exploring the nature of veneration, self-determination, and the continuum of history.

      Moore’s work is currently on view in Beneath Our Feet at Library Street Collective alongside fellow Detroiter LaKela Brown. His new pieces nod to the Dutch and Flemish tradition of devotional painting, particularly religious garland paintings. Within elegant arrangements of flowers and foliage, he highlights Black figures relaxing or tending to gardens.

      “The Patron Saint of Urban Farming” (2025), oil on linen, 72 x 48 inches

      In “Watermelon Man,” a stone altar is surrounded by hibiscus and watermelons, both symbols of resilience. Historically, the latter represented self-sufficiency and freedom for Southern African Americans following Emancipation, but whites flipped the narrative into a stereotypical exemplar of poverty. Moore reclaims the fruit in the spirit of refined 17th-century still-lifes.

      The artist has long drawn on the culture and legacies of both Detroit and the U.S. more broadly through the lens of the Black diaspora. Earlier works like “Pillars” position Black figures in elegant dress within the vast wildernesses of the American frontier, bridging the past to explore how racial divisions continue to shape the present.

      An exhibition last summer at Grand Rapids Art Museum titled Revolutionary Times took his series A New Republic as a starting point, revisiting the history of Black Union soldiers during the Civil War.

      Moore learned that one of his ancestors, who had been enslaved as a child, later enlisted in the Union Army, spurring the artist’s exploration of the seminal mid-19th-century period of conflict and Western colonization. He positions present-day figures in contemporary dress within historical contexts, interrogating political and racial segregations.

      “Watermelon Man” (2025), oil on linen, 51 1/2 x 42 inches

      Through tropes of European painting like a self-portrait of the artist in mirrored reflections and poses in three-quarter profile, Moore renders individuals whose direct, confident gazes and elegant dress invoke Detroit style and pride.

      For Beneath Our Feet, Brown and Moore collaborated on a five-foot-wide bas-relief bronze coin. Each artist completed one side, with Mario’s contribution taking the form of a portrait of Brown. “Her profile echoes the conventional format of traditional American coinage, confronting the historic absence of Black women in national symbolism and positions of authority,” the gallery says. On the opposite side, Brown depicts a bouquet of collard greens symbolic of nourishment and community.

      For this exhibition, Brown and Moore “reflect on the wealth held in the earth beneath us—and the enduring question of who holds the rights to till, own, and shape that land,” says an exhibition statement. Detroit is home to ambitious urban gardening initiatives that aim for local food sovereignty, mirroring the resourcefulness of Black farmers throughout history. The artists “consider land not just as property but as history, inheritance, and possibility,” the gallery says.

      Beneath Our Feet continues through July 30 in Detroit. See more on Moore’s website and Instagram.

      “International Detroit Playa: Sheefy” (2022), oil on linen, 108 x 96 inches

      “These Are Not Yams But They Are Damn Good” (2025), oil on linen, 51 1/2 x 42 inches

      “Creation of a Revolutionary (Helen Moore)” (2023), oil on linen, 76 x 52 inches

      “Black” (2023), oil on linen, 48 x 48 inches

      “Garland of Resilience” (2025), oil on linen, 51 1/2 x 42 inches

      “Birth of Cool” (2023), oil on linen, 72 x 48 inches

      Installation view of ‘LaKela Brown and Mario Moore: Beneath Our Feet’ at Library Street Collective, Detroit

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    • 138 Shares139 Views

      in Art

      In Surreal Portraits, Rafael Silveira Tends to the Garden of Consciousness

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      “Magnetic” (2025), oil on canvas, 23.62 × 23.62 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and DCG Contemporary, shared with permission

      In Surreal Portraits, Rafael Silveira Tends to the Garden of Consciousness

      May 29, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      With scenic vistas for faces, blossoms for eyes, or nothing but coral above the shoulders, Rafael Silveira’s surreal portraits summon aspects of human consciousness that span the spectrum of the wonderful and the weird. The Brazilian artist describes his work as “a profound dive into the human mind,” merging flowers, landscapes, and uncanny hybrid features into visages that channel humor with a slightly sinister undertone.

      Silveira’s forthcoming solo exhibition, Agricultura Cósmica at DCG Contemporary, traverses “the fertile terrain of the subconscious,” the gallery says. “With a nod to pop surrealism and the uncanny, his work imagines the mind as a garden where thoughts are seeds and images (are) the wildflowers that sprout.”

      “PLEEESE” (2025), oil on canvas, 23.62 × 23.62 inches

      Silveira works predominantly in oil, using panel or canvas as a surface and occasionally surrounding his works with ornate, hand-carved wooden frames. The sculptural details of the frames, like an anatomical heart in “Eyeconic Couple” or an all-seeing eye topping “A Crocância do Tempo” — “the crunchiness of time” in Portuguese — read like talismans.

      Many of Silveira’s compositions begin with a traditional head-and-shoulders portrait composition as a starting point, but instead of skin we see a distant horizon, like in “Magnetic,” or a figure’s head supplanted by a stalk of coral or a column of fire. Other pieces omit the human outline altogether in amusing arrangements of vivid flowers, which suggest wide eyes and addled expressions. While human forms shed their emotional autonomy as they converge with their surroundings, the flora in works like “OMG” and “PLEEESE” are a profusion of awe and desire.

      Agricultura Cósmica opens in London on June 12 and continues through July 10. The show runs concurrently alongside an exhibition titled Plural by embroidery artist Flavia Itiberê. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

      “Eyeconic Couple” (2025), oil on panel and hand-carved frame, 15.75 × 35.43 inches

      “Inside Out” (2025), oil on canvas, 35.4 x 31.5 inches

      “A Crocância do Tempo” (2025), oil on panel and hand-carved frame, 35.4 x 31.5 inches

      “The Artifice of Eternity” (2025), oil on canvas, 23.62 × 31.5 inches

      “OMG” (2025), oil on canvas, 23.62 × 23.62 inches

      “Paixão Ardente” (2025), oil on panel and hand-carved frame, 35.4 x 31.5 inches

      “The Roots of Reality” (2025), oil on canvas, 35.4 x 31.5 inches

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    • 113 Shares170 Views

      in Art

      An Exhibition Celebrates the Self-Taught Immigrant Artists Shaping Chicago

      by

      Alfonso “Piloto” Nieves Ruiz, , born Querétaro
      Mexico, 1975, “In the name of progress,” (2017), mixed media, 69 5/8 x 26 x 24 inches. Photo by Photo by Lisa Lindvay
      . All images courtesy of Intuit Art Museum, shared with permission

      An Exhibition Celebrates the Self-Taught Immigrant Artists Shaping Chicago

      May 23, 2025

      ArtSocial Issues

      Grace Ebert

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      Built on the traditional homeland of the Sauk, Fox, and Potawatomi peoples, Chicago is a city of immigrants. Just 13 years after the city was incorporated in 1837, more than half of its residents were born overseas, having flocked to the region from across Europe and Asia alongside tens of thousands of others. Today, Chicago is home to 1.7 million immigrants, totaling 18 percent of the population.

      The inaugural exhibition at the newly renovated Intuit Art Museum celebrates this history by bringing together 22 artists with ties to the city. Comprised of 75 works across mediums, Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago highlights those who worked in the Midwest and established their practice outside the traditional art world models.

      Carlos Barberena, born Granada, Nicaragua, 1972, “Exodus” (2019), linocut on HW Rives paper, edition of 25, 24 x 19 inches

      Intuit is a longstanding champion of self-taught artists. Established in 1991, the museum has recognized the incredible creative contributions of those operating outside the mainstream due to economic, societal, or geographic reasons.

      One such artist is Henry Darger, who worked as a hospital custodian by day and produced an enormous collection of drawings, watercolor paintings, and cut paper works only discovered after his death. While Darger’s works now sell for prices in the high six figures, his story is unique. Historically, self-taught artists don’t often attain the critical or financial recognition of their traditionally trained peers.

      Catalyst comes at a particularly relevant moment in the U.S., as immigrants are under increasing threat. Spotlighting works with a wide array of topics and approaches, the exhibition creates a sort of contemporary tapestry of those shaping Chicago’s cultural landscape since the mid-20th century. The show intends to highlight “artists deserving of greater attention, while posing questions about access to the art world and how art comes to be defined and valued,” a statement says.

      Included are four impeccably detailed paintings by Drossos P. Skyllas (1912-1973), an Ottoman-born artist known for his enchanting hyperrealistic portraits. Charles Barbarena works with a similar devotion to precise mark-making in his portraiture. The Nicaraguan artist creates linocuts that frame instances of trauma and adversity with elaborate floral motifs, his depictions of people continually harnessing compassion and resistance.

      Drossos P. Skyllas, born Kalymnos, Ottoman Empire (now Greece), 1912-1976, “Greek Bishop” (c. 1967), oil on canvas, 65 x 41 1/2 inches

      Found object and mixed-media sculpture features prominently, too. The soaring miniature cathedral by Charles Warner, for example, interprets the sacred spaces of his childhood in Prussia through hand-carved wood and pastel paint. There’s also the figurative assemblage of Alfonso “Piloto” Nieves Ruiz, who sculpts a rendition of the Statue of Liberty. With a torso of unidentifiable hands caked in soil and detritus at her feet, Piloto’s “In the name of progress” complicates the symbol of freedom.

      Catalyst is on view through January 11, 2026.

      Charles Warner, born Prussia (now Poland), 1884-1964, “Cathedral III” (c. 1955) mixed media, 48 1/16 x 16 1/8 x 20 7/8 inches. Photo by Mark Widhalm

      Charles Warner, born Prussia (now Poland), 1884-1964, “Cathedral III” (c. 1955) mixed media, 48 1/16 x 16 1/8 x 20 7/8 inches. Photo by Mark Widhalm

      Photo by Lisa and Nick Albertson

      María Enríquez de Allen, American, born Allende, Mexico, 1907-1999, “Untitled (New life goat skull)” (1997), mixed media, 8 ¾ x 7 x 10 ½ inches. Photo by Lisa Lindvay

      Marion Perkins, American, born Marche, Arkansas, 1908-1961, “Untitled (Wire head)” (c. 1955), steel wire, 19 x 12 x 13 inches. Photo by Lisa Lindvay

      Bronislaw “Bruno” Sowa, American, born Lubomierz (Poland), 1915-1995, “Untitled” (1994), oil on board in carved pyrography frame with glass jewels, 33 x 24 x 1 1/4 inches. Photo by Lisa Lindvay

      Photo by Lisa and Nick Albertson

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    • 138 Shares167 Views

      in Art

      ‘Wonder Women’ Celebrates the Dazzling Figurative Work of Asian Diasporic Artists

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      Dominique Fung, “Bone Holding Fan” (2021). All images courtesy of the artists and Rizzoli, shared with permission

      ‘Wonder Women’ Celebrates the Dazzling Figurative Work of Asian Diasporic Artists

      May 15, 2025

      ArtBooksSocial Issues

      Kate Mothes

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      In February 2020, curator and gallery director Kathy Huang met artist Dominique Fung—a month before the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down. Their conversations, which continued throughout quarantine, served as an impetus for what would become Huang’s Wonder Women exhibitions at Jeffrey Deitch.

      During their chats, Huang and Fung lamented “the uptick in violence against Asian American communities, particularly against women and the elderly,” Huang says in the introduction to her forthcoming book, Wonder Women: Art of the Asian Diaspora.

      Mai Ta, “mirror image” (2022)

      The two also found it difficult to pinpoint when the last major exhibition had been staged that thoughtfully presented Asian artists, and neither could think of an instance where women and nonbinary artists had been the focus. Both of Huang’s exhibitions and her new book are the fruit of that desire to highlight the remarkable spectrum of figurative work being produced within the Asian diasporic community today.

      A response to racism against Asians exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Huang conceived of the shows that went on view in 2022 in New York and Los Angeles as a means to highlight the incredible, groundbreaking work made especially by women and nonbinary artists.

      Forthcoming from Rizzoli, Wonder Women shares a similar title to a poem by Genny Lim, which follows experiences of Asian women through the lens of a narrator who observes their everyday routines and considers how their lives relate to hers.

      Huang expands on this view in her approach to showcasing the work of forty artists, each represented through at least four pieces and a personal statement. These artists “subvert stereotypes and assert their identities in places where they have historically been marginalized,” Rizzoli says.

      Sally J. Han, “At Lupe’s” (2022)

      Artists like Sasha Gordon or Nadia Waheed explore identity through sometimes fantastical self-portraiture, while others highlight family, community, and colonial or patriarchal systems in the West. Some address Asian myths, legends, and visual culture, like Fung’s exploration of antique objects or Shyama Golden’s otherworldly scenes in which hybrid human-animals interact with nature or urban spaces.

      Wonder Women will be released on May 20. Order your copy from the Colossal Shop.

      Shyama Golden, “The Passage” (2022)

      Chelsea Ryoko Wong, “It’s Mah Jong Time!” (2022)

      Nadia Waheed, “Bolides/ 852” (2022)

      Cover featuring a painting by Sasha Gordon

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    • 150 Shares168 Views

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      Floral Quilted Portraits by Maria A. Guzmán Capron Cultivate Care and Love

      by

      Detail of “Otra Vez.” All images courtesy of Lyles & King, shared with permission

      Floral Quilted Portraits by Maria A. Guzmán Capron Cultivate Care and Love

      May 14, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      For thousands of years, flowers have been a rich source of symbolism. Dating back to the Ottomans, floriology, or the language of flowers, blossomed in the Victorian era when a bouquet functioned as a nonverbal code. The delicate sweetpea, for example, might have been given as a thank you to a particularly generous host, while buttercups would tell the recipient that the sender thought them childish and immature.

      Maria A. Guzmán Capron (previously) references the timeless expressions of flowers for Solo Pienso en Volver a Verte, which opens this week at Lyles & King. Translating to “I only think about seeing you again,” the solo exhibition comprises the artist’s signature textile portraits of opulently patterned fabrics in a layered patchwork. Soft and plump with batting, the quilted characters are each unique, although Capron sometimes uses the same secondhand material on several pieces.

      “Déjame Llevarte”

      Encircled in hand-dyed fabrics, the figures in this body of work are often doubled or conjoined, as in the embracing women of “Otra Vez” or the two-faced subject of “Echa de Pedacitos.” Love, warmth, and protection feature prominently, as hands grasp for one another or emerge as a three-dimensional gesture. Capron envisions these layered, hybrid forms as a way to visualize the various identities, experiences, and memories within all of us.

      The artist also stitches and screenprints a wide array of flowers on faces, garments, and throughout the lush surroundings. Sometimes abstract and often indeterminate, the blooms share stories and messages of desire that might be unspeakable or better communicated through a symbol of affection. Tending to love in all of its forms is the thread that runs through each work, as Capron welcomes us into a world in which compassion and care are the most beautiful gifts.

      Solo Pienso en Volver a Verte runs through June 21 in New York. Find more from Capron on Instagram.

      “Otra Vez”

      “Echa de Pedacitos”

      “Para Que Me Mires”

      “Te Dejé Quererme”

      Detail of “Y Comencé”

      “También Allí”

      “Algo Escondido”

      Detail of “Otra Vez”

      “Y Comencé”

      Detail of “Te Dejé Quererme”

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    • 138 Shares169 Views

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      Kandy G. Lopez Embroiders Striking, Life-Size Yarn Portraits Highlighting BIPOC Narratives

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      Detail of “City Girls” (2025), yarn, acrylic, and spray paint on hook mesh canvas, 102 x 168 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and ACA Galleries, shared with permission

      Kandy G. Lopez Embroiders Striking, Life-Size Yarn Portraits Highlighting BIPOC Narratives

      May 8, 2025

      ArtCraft

      Kate Mothes

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      On large swaths of colorful mesh, Kandy G. Lopez embroiders large-scale portraits of people from historically marginalized communities. “Her works are created out of the necessity to learn something new about her people and culture,” says a statement.

      Drawing on her Afro-Caribbean ancestry, the Fort Lauderdale-based artist celebrates the style, culture, and heritage of individuals as a way to build connections and generate dialogue around representation.

      “R² – Roscoe and Reggie” (2024), yarn and acrylic paint on hook mesh, 90 x 60 inches

      Lopez began working with mesh and fiber almost ten years ago, but she began to approach it more seriously as a major tenet of her practice in 2021 while an artist-in-residence at The Hambidge Center in Georgia. “As a painter, my backgrounds were minimal. Sometimes they would have monochromatic cityscapes,” Lopez tells Colossal, “So, leaving the background rare is something I’m familiar with.”

      Visibility, presence, and representation are vital to the artist’s work. In each composition, she centers vibrantly dressed, life-size figures so their gazes directly meet the viewer. Through the use of material and metaphor — like layered threads suggesting how BIPOC individuals “disappear and reappear” — she intertwines notions of community, resilience, and narrative. “I love the connections and stories that the individuals tell but also how the stories narrate the material,” she says.

      The gridded backgrounds evoke associations with neighborhood street patterns and the overlapping layers of woven warp and weft. “I also love the metaphor in transparency, layers, and vulnerability,” the artist says, sharing that she sometimes still incorporates cityscapes painted onto the mesh.

      Lopez is represented by ACA Galleries. See more on her website and Instagram.

      “Reyna” (2025), yarn and spray paint on hook mesh canvas, 96 x 60 inches

      “City Girls” (2025), yarn, acrylic, and spray paint on hook mesh canvas, 102 x 168 inches

      “Rohan” (2023), yarn and acrylic paint on hook mesh, 96 x 60 inches

      “Miami” (2025), yarn and spray paint on hook mesh canvas, 96 x 60 inches

      “Rohan” (2023), yarn and acrylic paint on hook mesh, 96 x 60 inches

      Detail of “Reyna”

      Installation view of “Tayina”

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    • 125 Shares169 Views

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      In Luminous Portraits, Florence Solis Invokes Feminine Power Amid Constraint

      by

      “Makahiya IX” (2025),
      acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches. All photos by Julieta Christy Sarmiento, courtesy of The Mission Projects, shared with permission

      In Luminous Portraits, Florence Solis Invokes Feminine Power Amid Constraint

      April 22, 2025

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      When touched, the hypersensitive makahiya plant folds its minuscule leaflets inward, protecting itself from any potential threat.

      Florence Solis draws on this defensive response in an ethereal collection of portraits. Beginning with digital collages that meld figures and delicate, organic ornaments, the Filipino-Canadian artist translates the imagined forms to the canvas. Shrouded in dainty, beaded veils or entwined with botanicals, each protagonist appears bound and concealed, their bodies and faces obscured by hair or grass.

      “Sirena” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

      As Solis sees it, the figures may be restricted, but they’re also able to find strength and transformation. “Filipino women, much like the makahiya, have been taught to yield, to soften, to take up less space,” she says. “And yet, beneath this quietness lies an undeniable force—one that persists, adapts, and reclaims space in its own way.”

      Working in saturated, often single-color palettes, Solis renders figures who appear to harness magical powers. She references Filipino folklore and the belief in the power of the everyday to lead to the divine, painting women rooted in tradition and myth, yet determined to see their transformation through.

      The vivid portraits shown here will be on view at EXPO CHICAGO this week with The Mission Projects. Find more from Solis on Instagram.

      “Sa Lupa (On Ground)” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

      “Totem” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

      “Makahiya VIII” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      “Makahiya VII” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

      “Alay (Offering)” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

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