Il Sospetto 2015

Roberto Ferri made Il Sospetto, likely in oil paint, with a lot of classical drama and a slightly surreal twist. He really goes for it with that dramatic spotlight effect. It's all about the surface, isn't it? The figure’s skin is rendered in such detail and so smoothly, while the ground and background are looser and more gestural. Check out the hyper-realistic eye embedded in the figure’s back, such a strange detail. It's kind of creepy but also really compelling. The eye is watching us, but the guy is looking away. What's he hiding? Or what are we not seeing? I like the tension between the polished figure and the rough ground. Ferri's work has echoes of Caravaggio, but with a contemporary edge. He takes that Baroque drama and cranks it up a notch. It is art that embraces ambiguity and leaves you with more questions than answers.