Some of our past articles may not have images. Click here to see those that do.

Kip Omolade’s Reflective Paintings Reference African Traditions

Kip Omolade's "Diovadiova Chrome" portrait series brings out the striking qualities of the human face. The artist takes inspiration from African folk art forms such as the ivory masks of Benin and the Ife bronze heads of Nigeria. He considers his work a contemporary exploration of the mask as a conduit between mankind and the spirit world. For his updated take on this timeworn subject matter, Omilade makes plaster casts of models' faces and uses them to create resin sculptures, which he coats with chrome and embellishes with fake eyelashes. The masks serve as reference material for Omolade's hyperrealist oil paintings, which pay homage to African cultural traditions in a novel way.

Kip Omolade’s “Diovadiova Chrome” portrait series brings out the striking qualities of the human face. The artist takes inspiration from African folk art forms such as the ivory masks of Benin and the Ife bronze heads of Nigeria. He considers his work a contemporary exploration of the mask as a conduit between mankind and the spirit world. For his updated take on this timeworn subject matter, Omilade makes plaster casts of models’ faces and uses them to create resin sculptures, which he coats with chrome and embellishes with fake eyelashes. The masks serve as reference material for Omolade’s hyperrealist oil paintings, which pay homage to African cultural traditions in a novel way.

Topics

hyperrealism, Kip Omolade, painting

Anna Weyant, new contemporary art, painting

August 15, 2025

Anna Weyant’s work appears to have more in common with film than painting. Liz Ohanesian delves into the rising art star's latest work. Click above to read it, k?

Bruna Truffa’s “Wonderland” Paintings

Bruna Truffa, oil painting, painting

August 19, 2016

Chilean painter and visual artist Bruna Truffa combines imagery gathered from art history, popular culture and everyday life to present critiques on modern society and the institution of art itself. Flavored with kitsch, her works have previously explored notions of national identity, propaganda, consumerism and the contemporary feminine experience. In her latest series of oil-on-canvas paintings, the artist addresses ideas behind "Wonderland", described as a "fantasy wonderland and illusion, the dream of happiness, and the unfulfilled promise of the neoliberal realization."

Ewa Juszkiewicz Creates Twisted Versions of Canonical Portraits

Ewa Juszkiewicz, painting, Portraiture

November 7, 2014

Polish painter Ewa Juszkiewicz subverts canonical portraiture by playing with viewers' expectations. Poised damsels that evoke Renaissance-era nobility stand with their hands clasped and their faces replaced by oyster mushrooms, cockroaches and shrubbery. It's as if in spite of all the pains these ladies have taken to appear proper and civilized, nature has reasserted its dominion. Juzkiewicz is specifically interested in portraits of women and uses her work to study the ways women have been presented over the course of European history.

David Santiago Offers New, ‘24k’ Paintings

David Santiago, Mixed Media, painting

January 26, 2019

In David Santiago’s stirring portraits, freckles become gilded stars, part of a constellation intended to remind the viewer that “nothing is by accent.” The artist has an upcoming show at Stranger Factory, titled “24k,” that collects the newest work in this vein. Each painting is crafted on a wood panel, with the grain showing through the subject’s flesh.

Kip Omolade’s Reflective Paintings Reference African Traditions

Scratching the Surface: The Cinematic Paintings of Anna Weyant

Bruna Truffa’s “Wonderland” Paintings

Ewa Juszkiewicz Creates Twisted Versions of Canonical Portraits

David Santiago Offers New, ‘24k’ Paintings

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List

Follow us on our social networks

Shop

Subscribe

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List