INFINITE PORTRAITS
In the "Infinite Portraits" series, I explore the intersection of classical portraiture and digital materiality, reimagining the sacred tradition of gold-leafed religious icons through the lens of contemporary technology. The pixelated, generative backgrounds serve as a modern interpretation of the divine light once represented by gold leaf in medieval and renaissance sacred art. Each pixel becomes a quantum of digital luminescence, creating an ever-shifting tapestry that speaks to both the infinite and the ephemeral nature of modern existence.
These portraits challenge our understanding of the spiritual in the digital age, where code becomes the new gilding technique, and computational randomness creates patterns that stretch toward infinity. The glitch aesthetic, inspired by television interference patterns, suggests a kind of digital transcendence, where imperfection and corruption become pathways to the sublime.
LACRIMA
ARTMETA
The Digital Art Mile - Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland
Show curated by Georg Bak
2024
"LACRIMA" (Latin for "tear") is the first of a new series of digitally hand painted portraits, presenting a mix of generative art and 3D elements.
The subject presents a contemporary figure draped in the compositional style of renaissance portraiture, wearing a hood that echoes monastic garments while paired with modern street wear. The subject's gaze, directed slightly downward, creates a contemplative atmosphere that bridges centuries of portraiture tradition.
The work incorporates elements of vanitas painting through its inclusion of a digital device displaying the video of a skull image – a contemporary reimagining of the classic memento mori. This digital memento mori transforms the traditional skull motif into an ethereal, computer generated reminder of mortality, its turquoise glow matching the generative background and suggesting a kind of digital afterlife or transformed state of being.
The marriage of classical vanitas symbolism with digital artifacts speaks to our modern condition: as we increasingly live our lives through screens, our own mortality becomes intertwined with the digital realm. The rose detail near the device adds to the traditional “natura morta”, its organic form contrasting with the digital pixels, suggesting the persistent relevance of classical symbols in our technological age.
The portrait is dated in Roman numerals (MMXXIV) and signed, further emphasizing the dialogue between classical and contemporary forms of representation/communication.