Gaze 2020

Monica Ikegwu's oil painting, "Gaze," invites us to consider the power dynamics inherent in portraiture. The work, created by an artist born in 1998, presents a close-up of a young individual whose direct stare challenges the viewer. The choice of grayscale is interesting, muting the immediacy of color, which forces the viewer to look more closely at the details of light and shadow that shape the subject's features. This, along with the subject's large framed glasses, encourages us to reflect on how we perceive and categorize others. In contemporary society, the proliferation of images often reduces individuals to stereotypes. Ikegwu's "Gaze" seems to resist this tendency, demanding recognition of the subject's individuality. To understand it fully, we might consider research into the history of portraiture, the politics of representation, and the artist's own biography. Ultimately, the meaning of this art is in how it engages with the social and institutional contexts of its time.