Escape 2, airbrush and oil on canvas

Slovakian painter Michal Mraz creates layered representational art in a desaturated colour palette, often portraying several subjects or scenes at once using a technique that mimics the look of a double-exposed photograph.

Banality, acrylic and oil on canvas

Many of the works have a messy, DIY aesthetic, something like the work of Ronan Boyle, but the subject matter of Mraz’s paintings seems somehow quieter.  He often chooses what look like old family photographs or images from historical reference books, portraying groups of people in various everyday settings and painting them in black and white or sepia tones. In most of the paintings, these historical images are partly obscured either by smudges or paint or by contrasting images that intrude onto the same plane.

Using a combination of skilled oil painting and acrylic stencil work, Mraz references a long tradition of street art, and sometimes selects hooded and partly obscured street artists themselves as subjects. 

Sold Out, mixed media on canvas