Original artwork description:

With Ex Boyfriends 7, Ukrainian artist Inga Makarova turns denim into metaphor. This 40x40 cm sculptural canvas features the preserved front of a pair of jeans – real denim transformed with high-gloss black enamel, pressed and set like a fossil of memory. This piece, part of her ongoing Ex Boyfriends series, transcends fashion and enters the territory of conceptual introspection.

The work evokes a sense of permanence applied to something once transient: a past relationship, a shared moment, an emotional imprint. The jeans – commonplace, unpretentious – become sacred, presented like a relic from an intimate museum. The glossy black enamel accentuates every crease, seam, and rivet, elevating them to the level of expressive linework and gesture.

Collectors who gravitate toward conceptual and material-based art will find Makarova’s work both minimal and deeply narrative. This piece invites interpretation, reflection, even amusement – yet it always returns to the central truth: we carry our pasts in physical things, and those things often speak louder than words.

Materials used:

Denim, Enamel

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