Original artwork description:

Behind the Mask (2025) by Zakhar Shevchuk is a quiet yet piercing acrylic painting that poses a question as old as consciousness itself: Who are we when no one is watching? With a stark, almost solemn palette of greys, whites, and steel blues, Shevchuk constructs a fragile human presence – a figure half-formed, or perhaps half-erased, wearing a rudimentary paper-like mask with two hollow eye holes.

Rather than disguise, the mask becomes a symbol of exposure. The twin holes do not conceal the person beneath; they suggest that the act of masking is itself a form of self-examination. The figure’s contours are ghostly and intentionally imprecise, allowing it to blend into the deep, nearly abstract background. What results is a sense of emotional suspension – a liminal psychological state, rendered with expressive subtlety.

This is not a portrait in any traditional sense. It’s a statement on identity, alienation, and the tenuous lines between truth and performance. Ideal for collectors of emotionally rich, thought-provoking figurative abstraction.

Materials used:

Acrylic

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