Portrait of a young man X
2023
This haunting self portrait by Ryan Zogheb presents a dissolving male figure rendered entirely in grayscale, with facial features blurred and smeared into near abstraction against a deep black ground. The face hovers between recognition and erasure, embodying the artist's practice of merging self reflection with confrontation before the mirror. Zogheb works in grayscale to push figures into a liminal realm where identity becomes unstable and perpetually in formation. The small scale intensifies the psychological intimacy of the work, making it an arresting and collectible example of contemporary figurative painting.
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Location
- CLAMP, New York, NY
- Spotted At
- Gallery · CLAMPView on map
Notes
Exhibited in the group show 'Eros Rising' curated by Allen Frame at CLAMP, on view through July 2nd. Instagram post by @clampartnyc liked by jonathan_kent_adams. Artist Instagram: @ryanzogheb. Curator Instagram: @allenframenyc.
Spotted works by Ryan Zogheb
Artists in conversation
Gerhard Richter
German · b. 1932
Richter's photo paintings deliberately blur and smear figurative imagery into near abstraction, creating the same haunting dissolution of identity and facial features against dark grounds that defines Zogheb's grayscale portrait.
Marlene Dumas
South African · b. 1953
Dumas paints psychologically unsettling portraits where faces hover between recognition and erasure using a restricted palette, sharing Zogheb's commitment to small scale works that destabilize identity through deliberately unresolved figuration.
Adrian Ghenie
Romanian · b. 1977
Ghenie's oil portraits fragment and dissolve facial features through aggressive painterly smearing against dark grounds, producing the same liminal space between self recognition and abstraction that characterizes Zogheb's grayscale self portrait.
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