In the presence of (2026)

In this series, I extend my ongoing investigation of the human figure as an unstable, permeable site within a living field of forces. Consistent with my figurative art practice, the silhouetted body is not rendered as an individualized subject but as a threshold. The figure is an interruption within an atmosphere of colour, gesture, and flux. The figures sit, stand, move, and gather, yet remain psychologically indeterminate, suspended within environments that are not backgrounds but active, imaginal presences.

My painterly language—diffused edges, chromatic bleeds, and fluid contours—enacts a form of seeing through, where the visible is never fixed but always in transition. The works resist closure and refuse hierarchical separation between figure and field, interior and exterior, self and world. Instead, they propose a relational ontology: to exist is to be continually shaped by forces that exceed personal identity. The paintings position the viewer within this same condition, suggesting that perception itself is participatory. One does not stand outside the image; one is always already within it. One is always in the presence of.

These small paintings are about my speculations of the baby as an archetypal symbol. I try to express in paint how I see this conceptual understanding.

A baby can signify the birth of hope and renewal as a fresh start also heralding a divine presence of significant change. A baby is vulnerable and fragile and as a metaphor suggests early stages of ideas, projects, and a new journey ahead. The symbol of a baby embodies growth and transformation as untapped possibilities await. Care, patience, and faith in the unknown is needed when one holds pure and unformed essence in one's hands.