From "Mickey Mask" 2011

Samira Eskandarfar made this painting, From "Mickey Mask", using oil paint to explore really unexpected and awkward situations. The contrast between the slickness of the lips and the matte surface of the mask is so striking. It is like, what are we actually seeing here? What is being revealed and what is being hidden? The mask itself is painted quite thinly so you can see the brushstrokes underneath, but the lips are built up with lots of layers, so they appear wet, almost hyper-real. They seem so vulnerable, surrounded by the oppressive blackness of the mask. Then there’s that little purple bow, perched on the top. I mean, what is that even doing there? I am thinking about artists like Lisa Yuskavage who play with those kinds of juxtapositions in her paintings of female figures, and maybe even Philip Guston with his hooded figures who are at once sinister and kind of cartoonish. It feels like Eskandarfar is playing with the same kind of tension between seriousness and absurdity. For me, that’s where the real juice is.