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Escape Artist: Joshua Suda’s Subjects Break Through the Surface

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.

Topics

hyperrealism, Joshua Suda, painting, Portraiture

painting, Portraiture, Realism, Sharon Sprung

August 12, 2014

Setting soft and supple nudes against graphic patterns and textures, Brooklyn-based painter Sharon Sprung utilizes the tension between abstraction and realism to appease her own inner dichotomies and create art that expresses emotional complexities. But unlike many artists who muddle the polarities of figuration and abstraction into ambiguity, Sprung leaves them distinct, engendering a contrast that intensifies the impact of each.

Duarte Vitória’s Suggestive Paintings of Flesh

Duarte Vitoria, painting

August 8, 2014

The flesh takes a leading role in the art of Duarte Vitória, though not always in the most expected ways. In some works, it’s the bright red lips of the subject that command attention. In others, the artist focuses on a pair of hands coming together. Things get more eerie and unsettling in compositions where the flesh is folded and speckled with red as if bloody. In one painting, a face gets sectioned off by a rope wrapped tautly around a head. Even with a half-closed eye, the subject looks straight at the viewer as if the ropes do not exist. It’s hard to tell whether the subjects feel trapped in their flesh or strangely liberated by its inescapable existence. With each strange scene — made even more intense with careful shading — the story stays unclear but the question of human mortality stays pertinent.

The Vulnerable Oil Paintings of Aleah Chapin

Aleah Chapin, hyperrealism, painting

March 16, 2018

Aleah Chapin’s vulnerable figures exist within a spectrum of emotions: joy, contemplating, stoicism. Yet, in each, the painter has the ability to tie our natural states to nature itself, often crafting lush environments for her subjects. The artist is particularly influenced by the region she inhabited in her youth.

Shih Yung-Chun’s Surreal Paintings of Not-So-Everyday Scenes

painting, Shih Yung-Chun

February 12, 2015

Shih Yung-Chun paints surreal re-imaginings of everyday scenes, where adults occupy themselves with strange activities like bored kids creating their own games during summer vacation. Puppets, dolls, animals, and figurines are recurring motifs in Shih's world, which seems believable yet slightly off balance. The Taipei-based artist inserts autobiographical snippets in many of the paintings: Some of his scenes are set in his own house and he and his white French bulldog make occasional appearances. Shih has referred to his works as "soap operas," hinting at their highly fictionalized nature. Take a look at some of his work below.

Escape Artist: Joshua Suda’s Subjects Break Through the Surface

Sharon Sprung’s Portraits of Contemplative Women

Duarte Vitória’s Suggestive Paintings of Flesh

The Vulnerable Oil Paintings of Aleah Chapin

Shih Yung-Chun’s Surreal Paintings of Not-So-Everyday Scenes

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