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.
FATY
ARTVERSE
SOLVM I - Solo Show, Paris, France
Curation by Grida
2025
"FATY" continues my research on hand painted portrait through digital materiality. The work bridges classical portraiture tradition with contemporary digital aesthetics, featuring a generative golden pixel background that both honors and disrupts the gilt surfaces of religious medieval paintings.
The subject's attire creates a temporal dialogue: Malick Sidibé's iconic boxing photograph on the t-shirt pays homage to West African photography's profound impact on portraiture, while the gummy bear pendant introduces pop culture's playful vernacular. This juxtaposition of historical reference and youth culture symbols reflects my constant exploring of our era's complex and multi-layered visual language.
The wooden frame, inscribed with Roman numerals, acts as a portal between physical and digital realms. The glitchy corruption of the animated painting reflect of the effect of time on digital art - a contemporary memento mori where data corruption becomes a metaphor for temporal impermanence. Each pixel serves as a building block of digital spirituality, suggesting how our identities now exist between tangible and virtual states.
By incorporating animation and glitch elements, the work examines how traditional portraiture evolves in an age of dynamic digital media. The infinite pixels research manifests as a meditation on time, memory, and the transformation of human representation in our increasingly digitized existence.