With “Dark Matter,” Martine Johanna offers a new collection of stirring acrylic paintings that blend portraiture and abstraction. The show, running through June 23 at KochxBos Gallery in Amsterdam, is an autobiographical exploration of femininity, adolescence, and the place of women in Western culture. Johanna was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
“When I started working, large, threatening, abstract shapes of darkness appeared,” the artist says, in a statement. “As a child I once made friends with the shadows in my room, and today, in a similar manner, I enter a relationship with all aspects of myself that I find unpleasant. These forms create a positive dialogue, with the introspective (child) woman and her experiences, in swirling colour masses.”
See more of the work in the show below.
In 
Moscow based artist 
Blending two- and three-dimensional forms, Mark Whalen creates cerebral and absurd arrangements of the human body. Whether stacking vibrant heads or using sculpted hands to sculpt the very shapes of canvases, there’s a metatextual component in tackling the act of creating art itself.