Mask 3 2017

Sergey Piskunov made this painting, Mask 3, using oil. The color is, well, unnerving – this sort of pale green that makes you think of old hospitals or maybe some weird spa treatment gone wrong. But it's the making of the mask, the feel of the brushstrokes, that really pulls you in. It's not just about replicating a face, it's about building it, one layer at a time. Look closely at the mouth, that pink gape. The texture is everything here. It is so smooth, which contrasts the rougher texture of the mask. Piskunov uses this to draw attention to the mouth. This piece reminds me a little of Jenny Saville's work, where the flesh becomes a landscape, a terrain of raw, unfiltered emotion. Both artists share an interest in the grotesque and the body. But in the end, like all good art, it's more about the questions it raises than the answers it gives.