Lord Of The Flies 

Curator: Here we have Dave Macdowell's, shall we say, striking, portrait "Lord of the Flies," rendered in acrylic with visible impasto. Editor: Well, striking is one word for it. It’s… intense. The screaming face, the huge hands, the flies, all under that garish light. It hits you in the gut, doesn’t it? Makes me want to laugh and recoil at the same time. Curator: The exaggerated realism lends a surreal quality. Look at the glossy texture and how the acrylic paint accentuates every detail – the wrinkles, the flies. It speaks to a fascination with materiality, wouldn't you say? High art converging with, well, something less refined. Editor: Oh, absolutely! It’s got that pop-art sheen, but it’s way darker. It’s like a nightmare dipped in candy. The title itself evokes that sense of corruption and decay, right? William Golding, flies. But Macdowell updates it with a contemporary hyperreal aesthetic. Curator: Consider the social context as well. The artist’s hand in creation— literally and figuratively— looms large. The hands framing the subject bring in this tactile quality. Almost unsettling, the relationship between the maker, subject, and viewer are heavily impacted by this portrait. Editor: Yeah, those hands… Are they protecting or crushing? It’s this bizarre intimacy mixed with sheer horror. And the red fingernails? I keep thinking of a very unsettling femme fatale vibe. What kind of power play is going on there? The tension between disgust and the almost humorous is really striking. Curator: I think this is an example of pushing portraiture into something beyond simple representation, challenging our comfort zones by exposing themes of power, disgust, and the inevitable decay that comes with, and consumes all of us. Editor: For me, it’s that uncomfortable cocktail of humor and dread that stays with you. Like a clown telling you your doom over cotton candy. Heavy and impressive work overall.