Portrait on Black (2015)Oil painting by Zakhar Shevchuk

Portrait on Black is one of Zakhar Shevchuk’s early experiments with material, color, and psychological isolation. A male head emerges from a glossy black ground that behaves less like a “background” and more like a constructed space – dense, reflective, and visually pressurized. The black surface is punctuated by small geometric insertions, giving the composition an architectural rhythm and a subtle contemporary edge.

What makes the work distinctive is the dialogue between surfaces. The enamel creates a lacquer-like sheen that catches light differently than oil paint, while the face is modelled with a more organic, painterly texture. This contrast – matte flesh against polished darkness – produces a tension between presence and void, realism and abstraction. The head appears suspended, as if identity is surfacing from silence rather than occupying a conventional interior.

Created in 2015, the painting sits at a transitional point in the artist’s development: academically grounded figurative skill is still evident, yet the work already leans toward Shevchuk’s later interests in perception, ambiguity, and the psychology of form. For collectors, Portrait on Black offers a compelling early statement – technically confident, materially unusual, and conceptually charged.

Materials used:

Oil, Enamel

Details:

• Oil painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 60 x 80 x 2cm (unframed)
• Ready to hang
• Signed certificate of authenticity
• Style: Expressive and gestural
• Subject: People and portraits

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