
Swiss painter Barbara Tosatto’s work takes cues from the storied and symbolic. Most of her pieces focus on a solitary figure, transplanted in some vacant background, isolated from indicators of time or setting. These figures are human, but disrupted — bound in sheets and gauzy veils, or weighed down with ropes or chains. With titles like “The Tyranny of Doubt” or “The Truce” it’s hard not to see the pieces as portraits of mythological characters, embodying some archetypal human ability or curse. Mostly depicted with their faces obscured, or contorted from some type of bondage, the figures’ entrapment seems more tragic in their desolate surroundings, offering no alternative to the struggle. But their situation is still somehow noble, if seen as shouldering the weight of humanity’s conditions.






Swiss painter
With “Sorayama Space Park by AMKK” at Central Embassy in Bangkok, the futuristic creations of Hajime Sorayama fill the space, including a lifesized aluminum Tyrannosaur. The immersive installation focused on the dinosaur-themed work of the celebrated illustrator, who rose to prominence in the 1980s for his “sexy robots” representing the timeless male gaze theory. The project marks the 5th anniversary of Central Embassy.
Figures are subsumed in textured paint that drifts over the horizon like a thick fog in
Sebastián Gutiérrez crafts two-layered portraits that reveal something less elegant beneath the surface. This particular series from the Puerto Rican artist, titled “Inner Beauty,” is a study in contrast. A statement says that “though his main medium is oil paint, its usually presented on everyday items such as doors, rugs, windows or toys; he wants to give the spectator an instant sense of familiarity.”
Toronto painter