T he tender, breathing natural light that Cariappa Annaiah catches in his photographs engulfs radiantly evocative poses from otherwise oft overlooked crannies of the everyday world. His keen eye and instinct for capturing organic sculpture and grace frame serendipitous moments, frozen into place time and again throughout his body of work. Within the leaves, petals and stems that Cariappa finds, comes a luminously punctuated glimpse into an experienced eye that bypasses landscapes and bustling, crowded scenes in favor of the monumentally minimal. He chooses emotionally charged bends and stretches that echo human choreography and re-contextualize simple minutiae with tremulous operatic energy and suspense. His style and subjects thrive in his preference of natural lighting and only the most basic digital editing techniques, which leave the grandeur Cariappa unearths provocatively intact. The consequential portraits on fragilely magnified scales reflect both a scientific fascination with the small forms on display and a uniquely attentive and investigative aesthetic taste.

T he paintings of Enzo Casale question the universality of portrait painting. He attempts not to follow the trajectory of traditional portrait painting: those aiming to portray a likeness, a mood, or the inner essence of the spotlighted subject. Casale’s paintings instead function as a social commentary speaking to the commonality of the human condition. He engages the subject with the viewer in a way which promotes a sense of homogeneity, albeit in a seemingly contradictory manner. Untitled II highlights the diversity of humankind by blurring ethnographic lines, whilst referencing biologically determined events, such as death. Casale’s subject is treated with a monochromatic color scheme emphasizing cool tonalities, void of any identifiable skin color. This treatment of the skin implies the notion of death as the great equalizer, paying homage to a life-altering experience had by the artist at a young age. Moreover, Casale experiments with the magnification of various facial features inclusive of the nose, lips, and jaw line, to overemphasize structures often relegated towards specific races. However, instead of portraying a set of racially oriented tropes, Casale creates an aura of dynamism and complexity by offering a character free of any such stigmas. The subject is frontally placed, engaging the viewer with a gaze that speaks with magnetism and intensity. A visual connection is made.