Jana Branca

Portraiture is a vehicle through which I visually process aspects of our ‘human condition’. I am interested in our relational capacity as well as the various limitations that frustrate this ability. By leaving areas of the picture plane undeveloped and decontextualised and, subsequently, by revealing the ‘fabric' of the composition - the mark-making, the paint, and the canvas - I aim to introduce the constraints of space and time. This constructional process further alludes to how moments influence, build, and shape us, indicative of us being a ‘work in progress’. I am intrigued by the manner in which our shared human experience results in a dynamic reading of an intimate depictions of an individual. Given a little time in front of a portrait, the ‘foreign’ often gives way to the ‘familiar’ which allows the ‘particular’ to become ‘universal’.