From "Underground" 2008

Samira Eskandarfar made "From Underground" with oils on canvas. Eskandarfar is so interesting; she makes paintings that feel both gothic and contemporary, like they’re lit by candlelight and neon. Look at the face on the left, how the light glances off the cheekbone and brow. There’s something subtly synthetic about the colors in this painting. Eskandarfar uses a limited palette of browns and creams, but within that constraint, she finds a surprising range of tones. It's almost like she's playing with a black and white photograph, carefully tinting it to make it strange. This painting reminds me of Marlene Dumas, especially in its emphasis on the figure. Both artists explore the psychological depth of portraiture through the use of expressive brushwork and subtle color variations. And like Dumas, Eskandarfar leaves a lot of space for ambiguity. What are these figures thinking? What is the relationship between them? Eskandarfar doesn’t give us easy answers, and that’s what makes her work so compelling.