The hyper-realistic oil paintings of Joshua Suda will make you question whether you’re looking at a painting or a photograph as he recreates the features of the human face with stunning accuracy. Going beyond replicating life, many of Suda’s pieces also have elements of surrealism. Bizarre compositions, mixed with Suda’s impressive attention to detail, result in uncanny contortions of the human face. He often breaks the fourth wall, playing with the foreground and background to make it appear that the subject is bursting through the surface of the piece. In other works, he paints to mimic other media, replicating the detail of everything from pencil drawings to old photographs and contrasting them with how the subjects might appear to the human eye.
Chen Fei’s sharp acrylic paintings carry dark humor and allusions to art history. The China native’s crisp linework borrows from pop art and comic book sensibilities, yet much of these references harken back to centuries-old work. And much of the work carries the artist’s own figure, rendered in both graceful and shameful situations.
