Oh. My. Beautiful, sad, perfect, destroyed… all of that. This is the work of Toronto based artist Brian Donnelly. He has a solo show coming up later this week in Portland at Stephanie Chefas Projects. The show is titled “Nothing Lasts Forever” – appropriate – and this was a chunk of text that I found on the gallery’s site describing Brian’s process:

“Donnelly is well known for his aggressive approach to portraiture that involves defacing meticulously executed figures through the use of turpentine, hand sanitizer, and other materials. The resulting work is a study in deterioration, fortified by the philosophy that to take away from something can be just as provocative as to add to it.”

Agreed. I think I’d put the word “brave” in there somewhere too. I’m not sure I’d be able to pour turpentine over a perfect painting… although I bet it would be fun!