This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by the artist confirming the authenticity of this lot

ABOUT THE WORK

Justiniani’s hypnotic, off-kilter take on Realism imbues the everyday with a haunting presence. Justiniani’s world has always undergone astonishing transformations. Fingers surround the woman’s face in layers, leaving interpretations to the viewer. Justiniani combined visual elements held together more by the intangible unity of the pictorial process than by any coherent rationality. His art is rich in challenges for the viewer whose desire is for a deeper, more mysterious understanding of the world. 2007, the year this painting was made, was also a year when many of Mark Justiniani’s works literally incorporated words, which were made with Filipino jeepney artists. The modality of expression was exemplified by his literal use of “words” which morphed in jeepney art fashion into other “messages” in a clever maneuver of illusion and reality. Yet his “Hidden and Haunting Transcripts” (which was the title of a September/October 2002 article in Asian Art News about his foray into jeepney art/word aesthetics) extends to his literally wordless paintings, thus the apt description for the painting is Hidden and Haunting Images. Fingers surround the eye in layers, leaving interpretations to the viewer. Justiniani combined visual elements held together more by the intangible unity of the pictorial process than by any coherent rationality.