"The Ideal Son" Painting

The "Sleep" series is a tribute to the inner world we visit when our eyes are closed. Originally inspired by the Greek gods, the smiles of the subjects relate to Eros, the pleasure and inner peace we feel when connected with another. The closed eyes, Thanatos, relate to death. The expressionist touch may be interpreted as the constant fight between the two gods (life/death) and the variety of thoughts we all have when we dream. In my early paintings, I explored, sociologically, how fads imprint contemporary culture and even have the ability to rewrite recent history, changing the public's perspective profoundly. From a distance, I reflected the tendency of Western society to idealize and glorify modern icons, such as brands or celebrities, without question. As a basis for my work, I was inspired by twentieth century propaganda posters and artworks with strong religious and political messages that I rearranged in order to reinterpret and deconstruct the present. Finally, as a part of a dialectic process, my work questions the history of art by challenging both the notion of the "celebrity artist" and my role in this mechanism.