Mask 3 2017

Sergey Piskunov has made this arresting face in paint, but when? There is something timeless and very now about it. Just imagine the work involved to capture all that skin, the cracked mask, the sheer panic in those eyes! I wonder, was Piskunov thinking about how we perform for each other, the way we hide behind our faces, the things that make us scream inside? Maybe. It’s like he's scraping away at the surface, trying to get at something raw and real beneath. The tension between realism and something else, some feeling about horror movies, or the horror of real life, is palpable. It reminds me of Jenny Saville’s unflinching gaze, but with a TikTok twist. Artists build on each other, responding, reacting, remixing across time, and across mediums. I love it.