One of the most striking features of David Slone’s high-definition portraits is his treatment of his subjects’ skin. In each larger-than-life oil painting of an anonymous individual, Slone zeroes in on the way light hits the sitter’s face. He shows us how a peach tone can fracture into dozens of different, subtle hues. Slone makes pores and hairs visible in the way they are only when we press our face up to someone else’s. His works thrust his viewers into an intimate interaction with his subjects.
When we last featured Slone on the blog, his work predominantly consisted of surreal, floating heads. His most recent painting series more closely resembles traditional studio portraiture, though Slone ups the abstract elements and embellishes his subjects with colorful markings. The artist says the markings represent the bombardment of visual information the contemporary individual navigates on a daily basis. Indeed, they float like a perpetual, vague humming noise, creating a barrier between subject and viewer.
Originally from Prague, 
Evan Lovejoy's paintings are inspired by both the artist's love of the natural world and his anguish due to its destruction. Our complicated relationship with animals is shown through the artist's varying ways of depicting them. Within the same work, a beast moves between a sense of realism, cartoonish rendering, and a more pop-surrealist sensibility.