Aphasia - Vintage Newspapers Concept Portrait (2025)Pastel drawing by Julia Shilo

Title: Aphasia
Medium: Charcoal & pastel on vintage newspaper - with folds, small tears and a warm yellowed hue of time
Size: 46,06 х 46,06 inches (117 x 117 cm) unframed
Style: Contemporary realism with abstract elements
Original, hand-drawn artwork (not a print)
Signed by the artist
Shipped folded to the size of a newspaper sheet, carefully packed in the box.

This is a one-of-a-kind charcoal and pastel artwork created on vintage newspaper sheets, carefully composed into a 117x117 cm surface. The piece combines hyper-realistic portraiture with abstract interventions, creating a powerful contrast between human vulnerability and the overwhelming noise of information.

The artwork explores the concept of voices that cannot be heard — a universal cry for peace and dignity. The inverted newspaper text symbolizes distorted communication and lost meaning, while the expressive mouth emerges as a raw, emotional call to stop the chaos.

This artwork is not only a striking contemporary statement but also a unique piece of large wall art, ideal for collectors of emotional, thought-provoking, black and white modern art.

STATEMENT:
This work speaks of the need to be heard and of the despair born from the inability to be heard. The mouth depicted is not just a fragment of a face, but a symbol of a cry breaking against the indifference of a world burdened with shattered lives and weary from tragedies.

The background is made of inverted vintage newspaper pages — delicate, thin, and fragile, like the voice I depict. These pages, fragments of collective memory of past tragedies, are stripped of direct meaning. Still legible, yet upside down, they transform into noise, weight, and barrier. Abstract interventions — smudges, erasures, and darkened areas — interrupt the flow of printed language, reflecting the collapse of communication when words lose their power to connect.

The title refers to aphasia — a condition in which a person loses the ability to understand or produce speech. For me, as a Ukrainian forced to leave my homeland, it reflects the state of watching world events from afar: unable to intervene, unable to silence the chaos, yet filled with the desperate need for it to end — a cry without hope or comprehension, a voice without response.


Perfect for:
Contemporary art collectors
Modern home or office wall decor
A unique, meaningful gift for art lovers

Bring home not just a work of art, but a voice captured in silence, a timeless reminder of the fragility and strength of the human spirit.
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CUSTOMS / IMPORT TAXES:
All customs documents are provided. Please note that any import duties, taxes, or customs delays are the buyer’s responsibility.

Materials used:

pastel on vintage newspaper

Details:

• Pastel drawing on Paper
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 117 x 117cm (unframed)
• Signed certificate of authenticity
• Style: Photorealistic
• Subject: People and portraits

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