Portrait with gold 2018

Sergey Piskunov made this oil painting with gold leaf called, "Portrait with Gold." It's pretty striking, right? The way Piskunov uses color and mark-making here is really interesting. The skin tones are so smooth, like porcelain, and then BAM, there's all this gold leaf scattered across the surface, like some kind of glamorous rash. Look at the gold pieces, some are like little squares, others more like shards. It's the tension between the hyper-realism of the portrait and the almost reckless application of the gold that gets me. It reminds me a bit of Klimt, but with a cooler, more detached vibe. There's a push and pull, a conversation happening between control and abandon. It makes you wonder what the artist was thinking, or maybe, what they were feeling. Art is always a kind of translation, isn’t it?