Ever looked at a painting and wondered what exactly you’re looking at? Hold that question up to Encaudre, a series of paintings by artist Pablo Guzman – which we came across on Faith is Torment – and the answer is quite clear: what we’re dealing with here is ourselves. Guzman’s paintings dismantle the performance of art, perhaps even suggest that art is a kind of deceit. He does this, namely, by incorporating the viewer into his art; the subjects of his portraits are either simply observing a canvas or doing something with it – putting it up or taking it down – and are usually faceless (the point being that they could be anyone: you, for example). Sometimes Guzman even puts the viewer inside the canvas – which is, in turn, inside its larger frame. Endless meta layers aside, Guzman’s art reiterates the question we started with: What, when we look at a painting, are we looking at?
Image Credit: Pablo Guzman
Image Credit: Pablo Guzman
Image Credit: Pablo Guzman
Image Credit: Pablo Guzman
Image Credit: Pablo Guzman
Image Credit: Pablo Guzman
Image Credit: Pablo Guzman
Image Credit: Pablo Guzman
Image Credit: Pablo Guzman
Image Credit: Pablo Guzman