Masks, Between Fiction and Reality
Masks, Between Fiction and Reality
Since the very beginning of this series, I have been fascinated by the symbolism of masks. Throughout history, masks have served as tools of transformation. On stage, they allow actors to embody multiple identities, hiding their real faces to give life to others. In our daily lives, we do something very similar. We wear invisible masks to fit in, to avoid discomfort, to persuade, or to navigate through complex social moments.
As I worked on these paintings, I kept returning to this tension between who we are and who we present to the world. The mask becomes a boundary, sometimes protective, sometimes deceptive. It allows us to shape how others see us, but in doing so, it also creates distance from our truest selves.
This series is my way of exploring that duality. Each piece becomes a quiet conversation between authenticity and representation, between truth and appearance. The figures I paint often stand alone, caught in introspective moments where the mask is present —either worn, removed, or simply suggested— inviting the viewer to question what lies beneath.
At the heart of this work lives a simple but unsettling question: who are we when no one is watching? And what happens when the mask no longer feels like something we wear, but something that has become part of us?
In many ways, painting these images has been my own process of unmasking. Each brushstroke feels like an attempt to peel back layers, not only in my subjects but also in myself. It is a process of searching for honesty, even within the constructed nature of art itself.
The masks we carry are complex. Sometimes they protect us. Sometimes they confine us. But acknowledging their presence, and confronting the spaces they occupy in our lives, is where the real dialogue begins.
.png){kind=small}
Comments
Post a Comment