_the_last_guard/ (2025) Original Mixed-media Painting by Ilya Vartanian

_the_last_guard/ presents a solitary human figure emerging from a pale, almost immaterial field. The body remains clearly recognizable, yet its surface appears unstable: turquoise, black and metallic structures interrupt the anatomy, while areas of the figure seem to blur, dissolve or shift laterally. Small red traces punctuate the otherwise cool palette, intensifying the sense of a body held between presence and disappearance.
The image passes through drawing, photography and the digital environment before being manually transferred onto canvas using acrylic medium. Each stage alters the image and becomes part of the next, leaving traces of the process embedded in the final surface. Acrylic functions here as part of the transfer and material construction of the work rather than as a conventional painting medium. The result is a technological palimpsest in which figuration and abstraction coexist.
The work is presented on unstretched canvas.

Materials used:

mixed media and image transfer on canvas

Details:

• Mixed-media painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 90 x 116 x 0.1cm (unframed)
• Signed certificate of authenticity
• Style: Abstract
• Subject: People and portraits