E684277B-3D0D-4479-A232-B87343A3101D.jpeg
E684277B-3D0D-4479-A232-B87343A3101D.jpeg

Primitive Art!

£1,500.00

This piece operates as a dialogue between masks—both literal and metaphorical—and the act of seeing. The canvas is divided into two distinct yet conversational zones: the left side teems with kinetic gesture and symbolic language, while the right side withdraws into the austere stillness of portraiture.

On the left, a monumental head rendered in bold yellows and encased in green and blue outlines suggests ritual or ceremonial art, perhaps invoking African mask traditions while simultaneously subverting them with playful intrusions of contemporary pop symbols—musical notes, arrows, cartoon-like lines of energy. The figure pulses with rhythm, as if the drawing itself vibrates to music. A photographic collage element—a triumphant figure raising their fist—anchors the painted abstraction in the realm of lived experience, giving the work a political urgency. The celebratory gesture transforms the mask from an artifact of tradition into a living, breathing emblem of resistance and joy.

By contrast, the right side is quieter but no less haunting. Here, a face framed in gold suggests the sanctity of portraiture and art history, yet the figure’s hollow, abyssal eyes destabilize any sense of comfort. This portrait feels spectral, perhaps a meditation on identity as something always mediated, always “framed” by external expectations. The rough texture of the paint, with its visible underlayers and almost childlike mark-making, resists polish, leaving the subject deliberately unfinished—an identity still in flux.

This piece operates as a dialogue between masks—both literal and metaphorical—and the act of seeing. The canvas is divided into two distinct yet conversational zones: the left side teems with kinetic gesture and symbolic language, while the right side withdraws into the austere stillness of portraiture.

On the left, a monumental head rendered in bold yellows and encased in green and blue outlines suggests ritual or ceremonial art, perhaps invoking African mask traditions while simultaneously subverting them with playful intrusions of contemporary pop symbols—musical notes, arrows, cartoon-like lines of energy. The figure pulses with rhythm, as if the drawing itself vibrates to music. A photographic collage element—a triumphant figure raising their fist—anchors the painted abstraction in the realm of lived experience, giving the work a political urgency. The celebratory gesture transforms the mask from an artifact of tradition into a living, breathing emblem of resistance and joy.

By contrast, the right side is quieter but no less haunting. Here, a face framed in gold suggests the sanctity of portraiture and art history, yet the figure’s hollow, abyssal eyes destabilize any sense of comfort. This portrait feels spectral, perhaps a meditation on identity as something always mediated, always “framed” by external expectations. The rough texture of the paint, with its visible underlayers and almost childlike mark-making, resists polish, leaving the subject deliberately unfinished—an identity still in flux.

What makes the piece compelling is its tension: one side ecstatic, noisy, defiant; the other reserved, eerie, contemplative. The floral motifs that wander across both halves serve as a fragile connective tissue, softening the rupture while reminding us of cycles of growth and decay. The overall effect is that of a cultural palimpsest—personal history, collective struggle, and art historical lineage colliding in one surface.

This is a work that does not settle into one mode. It insists on its contradictions: celebration and haunting, figuration and abstraction, immediacy and reflection. In doing so, it asks viewers not to choose between them, but to dwell in the unsettled space where identities, histories, and aesthetics overlap.