From the gallery

Cat. 06Room II

Identity VI

Acrylic on synthetic support

Dimensions

65 x 200 cm

Year

2025

Series

Identity

Price

On request

“Identity VI”, like all the works in the series, remains a self-portrait, although it is not based on physical resemblance. Each of the eight paintings represents a different part of me, a different memory, emotional state, experience, or question that I carry within myself. Sometimes it is childhood, at other times inner conflict, uncertainty, daydreaming, or the need to find my own place. All of these stories are different, yet together they form a more complex image of my identity. “Identity VI” has a different energy from the other works in the series. The cool blues give way here to muted violets, pinks, and graphite tones, making the space feel less like a specific landscape and more like something far less tangible. A cosmic space, a night sky, or a place existing somewhere between reality and imagination. At the centre remains a human figure, dark and almost stripped of individual features. We do not see a face, so once again we are not given a straightforward portrait. The figure becomes more of a sign of presence than a representation of a specific person. In the context of a self-portrait, this takes on particular meaning. Instead of answering the question “what do I look like?”, a much more personal question appears: where do I truly belong, and what do I feel connected to? Since childhood, I have been fascinated by stars, constellations, star patterns, and the changing phases of the Moon. Looking at the sky has always meant something more to me than simple observation. It has brought with it a sense of curiosity, calm, but also a difficult-to-explain feeling of connection with what exists above us. In “Identity VI”, this personal experience becomes part of the painting and another fragment of my own story. The space surrounding the figure may resemble a fragment of the sky seen through memory rather than through a telescope. The lines, scratches, and intersecting marks evoke associations with star maps, trajectories, constellations, or an attempt to connect distant points into a single pattern. Just as people have looked at seemingly randomly arranged stars for centuries and given them meaning by creating constellations, we also build our own identity from experiences, memories, and emotions that may at first seem unrelated. The figure appears both heavy and unreal at the same time. Its dark form strongly marks the presence of the body, yet the surrounding matter gradually takes away its clarity. It is difficult to tell whether the figure is standing on the ground or existing in a space without any clear point of reference. This suspension creates a sense of solitude, though not in the sense of loneliness. It is rather the solitude of a person standing before something infinitely greater than themselves. The violets and muted pinks introduce a different emotional temperature into the series. There is something more mysterious, nocturnal, and almost intimate in them. Combined with graphite tones, they create a space that may recall the moment of looking at the night sky, when for a while we stop focusing on everyday life and become aware of our own smallness in relation to the vastness that surrounds us. Paradoxically, it is precisely then that we may feel part of something greater. “Identity VI” therefore speaks not only about searching for oneself within, but also about trying to find oneself in relation to the world, nature, and everything that remains beyond our immediate reach. The cosmos becomes here both a genuine fascination and a metaphor for inner space, equally vast and equally difficult to fully understand.