Ross’s Family Portrait 2021

Michael Cheval made Ross’s Family Portrait using oil on canvas and a wild imagination. I mean, who thinks of putting a man in armor, holding roses, in a garden maze? There’s so much theatricality in the image! It’s as if Cheval is painting a stage set, complete with a costumed woman looking in her mirror, and a parrot on a swing. I imagine Cheval having fun mixing the colors, getting the perfect shade of royal purple for her dress. I like how this color dominates, drawing your eye to her before you begin to notice all the other things going on—the guinea pig, the floating family, the dude with a hat. It has this dreamlike quality that reminds me of Magritte, only more playful. Cheval is not afraid to be silly, which is something I can really appreciate. The artist has created a world that’s a mash-up of different times and places, all coexisting in a single frame.