ABOUT THE WORK

Despite being brought up around the art world by his mother, the thought of becoming a visual artist did not intuitively appear to a young Martin Honasan. He pursued a degree in Communications and Psychology as a practical entry point into adulthood and independence. Yet through his failed endeavors, Honasan was able to rediscover his true passion in art and painting. But, his unorthodox background was not for naught. Honasan approaches portraiture through an extremely unique way, with damage as his starting point and disrepair as his guide. Inspired by various psychological concepts, Honasan examines the contrast between freedom and boundaries with the human face as his preferred canvas for life’s complexities. From this expressionist exercise, Honasan lets his mind find facial characteristics from random patterns in a psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia. His oeuvre has featured portraits overlaid on distressed and reconstructed canvases that had collected residual paint. Honasan begins his work by scrutinizing textures, cutting up canvases, and producing folds and wrinkles before putting brush and paint to work in rendering faces in the chaos.