This vibrant portrait painting employs a bold, surreal style to capture an intense, emotive expression. The composition is dominated by vivid shades of blue, which envelop the subject's face in an ethereal, almost otherworldly glow. The artist's skilled use of chiaroscuro, with dramatic contrasts between light and shadow, creates a sense of depth and volume, highlighting the subject's striking features. The distorted, abstracted rendering suggests a psychological or symbolic interpretation, inviting the viewer to ponder the deeper meaning behind this captivating work. The artist's innovative technique and expressive vision come together to produce a thought-provoking, contemporary artwork that challenges the boundaries of portraiture. ...
A manifestation of her identity as a biracial Asian woman and the societal pressures that this entails, Sasha Gordon’s striking, often unsettling paintings represent a hyper-awareness of one’s own body, with exaggerated, caricatured features and hyperbolic physicality. Despite these feelings of unease, the figures seem caught in moments of fragile happiness, fleeting stability, or momentary and blissful obliviousness. The characters Gordon portrays – some of whom clearly bear the physiognomic likeness of the artist – are bathed in colour and light that seems artificial, surreal. They are cast in blue moonlight or the purple hues of a dimly lit room, clustered-together figures who each carry the weight of their own story.
Written by Goldsmiths CCA ...
