VANTA - Absence

“Absence” (2025)
Oil on canvas
170 x 140 cm

Multiple faces surface from deep blue oil paint, each carrying distinct expressions that range across the emotional spectrum. VANTA has worked with a single shade of blue, creating every tonal variation through the careful removal of paint - taking away more pigment to reveal lighter areas, preserving darker passages where the original application remains. The faces overlap and intersect, creating a crowd of presences that emerge from and recede back into the saturating blue.

Each expression reads clearly despite the narrow tonal range - joy, sorrow, contemplation, anguish - all carved from the same blue foundation through meticulous removal techniques. Represented by S-Gallery and available on Catawiki, the piece demonstrates remarkable control in suggesting not just anatomical form but psychological state through strategic paint removal alone. Some faces push forward into greater visibility while others hover at the edge of perception.

The substantial canvas allows this gathering of faces to develop without crowding, each finding space to establish its own character while remaining connected to the collective whole. They exist in a shared blue atmosphere, individual consciousnesses suspended in darkness, made visible only through absence - the deliberate removal of paint that paradoxically creates presence.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Shipping:
The work is delivered without a frame (professional packaging, rolled in a tube). it can easily be restretched by a professional or on your own, this is also cheaper then the otherwise increased cost of shipping when sending paintings of this size stretched

The measurements indicated are those of the painting stretched and mounted on a frame (The actual
measurements of the canvas are larger to allow it to be mounted on a frame 2-4cm thick.