Vivian Greven’s oil and acrylic paintings, bridging Greco-Roman art and a contemporary sense of depth and space, are studies of intimacy. The artist’s command of color and negative space offer riveting results, her treatment of the canvas as a membrane allowing her figures to move in and out of the plane.
“Vivian Greven’s painting is based on an adept play with various notion of bodies, being and representation, with concepts of classical antiquity merging with pop art and digital image worlds,” says the gallery Kadel Willborn. “Vivian Greven’s painting is characteristic of our present times, which are shaped by the internet and social media and thus dissolve the hierarchies between original, reproduction and simulation. The art historical and contemporary historical nestling corresponds with Greven’s painterly treatment of surfaces.”
See more of her work on her site.
The surreal oil paintings of Mexico-born artist 
Japanese artist 
In the recent, enormous portraits painted by Mike Dargas, the artist pays homage to major figures in art history and tucks surprises into their contours. With “The Unbreakable," which honors Frida Kahlo, the artist says she was "physically broken but her spirit was unbreakable and her powerful essence eternal.” See more of his recent portraits below.