Unseen Signifiers
Unseen Signifiers brings together ten portraits, each with its own character and emotional charge. For me, the series shows how quickly we try to understand someone through a first impression, while much more is always present beneath the surface. Guilt, tension, anger, shame, disorientation, surprise, longing, connection, playfulness, and vulnerability all shape the faces in different ways.
A signifier is something, such as a facial expression, gesture, or sign, that points to meaning. Here, unseen suggests that many of these signals are not noticed at first. The title refers to emotions and meanings that can be present in a face without being immediately visible or fully readable.
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Year: 2025
Paper: Fabriano Pittura, 400 gsm
Materials: Panda Oil Pastels, Posca Acrylic Markers and Stabilo Highlighters
Size: 50×50cm
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Each of the ten works is held in a frame that resonates with the colors of the drawing it surrounds. Cherry, mint, bright blue, purple pink, green, orange, grey, deep red, black, aqua, blush pink, natural wood, purple, red, light blue, yellow, dark blue, olive, cappuccino, yellow-green, old rose, and granada move through the series in shifting combinations, giving every frame its own emotional register. The palette remains vivid and varied, yet always tied to the image it carries, so that frame and artwork read as one continuous field.
That chromatic richness echoes Unseen Signifiers itself. Just as each face holds several emotional traces at once, each frame gathers multiple tones into a single structure, allowing contrast, warmth, tension, and lightness to coexist. The result is a series in which color functions as an extension of expression: outwardly immediate, inwardly layered, and gradually more revealing the longer the eye remains with it.
Wood Recipe:
Mahogany Frame body: 51.8 × 1.0 × 0.6 cm — 80 pcs
Oak Frame body: 51.8 × 2.5 × 0.6 cm — 40 pcs
Oak Frame body: 51.8 × 1.5 × 0.6 cm — 40 pcs
Oak Glass lip: 51.8 × 2.4 × 0.6 cm — 40 pcs
Beech Spacer: 51.8 × 1.8 × 0.6 cm — 40 pcs
Oak Backing rim: 51.8 × 1.6 × 0.6 cm — 40 pcs
Meranti plywood Back panel: 50×50×0.36 cm — 10 pcs
Finishes:
Framework: multiple coats of 2K PU lacquer (high-gloss and satin)
Back panel: multiple coats of clear Ruwa marine varnish
Glazing:
Acrylic glazing: clear, opal, anti-reflective Gallery® (UV-protected)
Collect the complete Unseen Signifiers series (10 artworks) at a special bundle price. Each piece is a 50 × 50 cm museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle FineArt 290 g/m², signed in Posca marker and individually numbered in a limited edition of 50. This series includes the unique Certificate of Authenticity.
Frames not included.
