Vincent Xeus's shadowy portraits reference the Italian and Dutch masters. But rather than directly emulating the techniques of Caravaggio and Rembrandt, he builds on their styles to create works with a moody, haunted ambiance. He scratches and smudges his anachronistic portraits with his paintbrush, making them appear broken and somehow corrupt. His subjects' faces become ghostly and unrecognizable — their images, relics of an opulent society with a dark underbelly. Xeus's new work is currently on view in his solo show, "Love — Fragmented Traditions," showing through February 14 at Last Rites Gallery in New York.