Not Vital Self Portrait, 2012

The monochrome palette of Not Vital’s portraits – rendered in subtle shades of white, grey and black – reflects the colour asceticism of his youth spent in the Swiss Engadin valley, also known as the Grisons or ‘the land of the grey’. In this selfportrait, the artist’s head floats like an orb above a spectral body in an undefined space, replacing an emphasis on the identifying features of a face with consideration of the overall form. Preoccupied with the expression of an inner reality, the work highlights the potency of essence as opposed to detail. An integral part of the work, the glazed frame functions as a form of skin that unifies and contains the painting, simultaneously inviting the viewer in and keeping them at a certain distance. Creating reflections that can obscure the image from certain angles, the glass layer forces the viewer to physically negotiate the act of looking, repositioning themselves in order to fully experience the work.