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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Summer is finally here. Dominican artist Gustavo Peña captures the spirit of summer perfectly in expressionistic, quirky portraits of himself and close friends. His scenes are candid and not at all flattering, focused more on plays of light and the emotional intensity of his subjects. His tone alternates between dark and humorous, depicting subjects playing with Star Wars toys and ray guns in superhero masks. Peña labels his work as “realistic”, but upon close inspection thickly layered strokes of paint are revealed. Also a photographer, one can see the close connection between Peña’s painted work and harshly lit editorial photographs. Read more after the jump.