I see you by Darya Sokolova
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 75 x 100 cm
Year: 2024
Price: $2100.00 USD
Status: available
When I painted "I SEE YOU," I was exploring what it means to truly be seen after seventeen years of building belonging in Dubai. The pale blue face represents how I felt initially, visible but distant. One eye is vivid green, directly meeting your gaze with the courage of someone who's learned to let herself be seen. The other hides behind a golden circle, protecting the parts of myself that took years to reveal. The chaotic background captures the energy of arriving somewhere completely foreign, while vertical pink streaks show structure emerging from disorder, finding rhythm, building life line by line. Polka dots represent my courage taking up space boldly. The intricate patterns on the green clothing are cultural layers I've woven together, dreams still growing. "I SEE YOU" hovers like both declaration and question. After years of translating myself and wondering if I belonged, I finally see who I've become. This painting is my journey from being looked at to being truly seen, from stranger to recognized, from obstacles to possibilities. It's about claiming visibility on my own terms.
Why collect this work?
A frontal portrait makes visibility a contest between direct address and concealment: one eye faces outward, a gold disc covers the other, and the words “I SEE YOU” reverse the direction of scrutiny.
- Sokolova describes the painting as an exploration of belonging after building a life in Dubai. Her stated intention clarifies the tension between exposure and self-protection, while the image leaves their balance unresolved.
- In the photograph, the tightly cropped face sits among contrasting fields, dots, floral motifs and vertical streaks. Against this visual density, the uncovered green eye becomes the composition’s sharpest point of contact.
- Catalogued as acrylic on canvas, 75 × 100 cm, the work uses opaque colour blocks, emphatic contours and layered marks to keep its patterns distinct rather than resolve them into naturalistic space.
- In a display concerned with portraiture and the politics of looking, this 2024 painting could complicate the usual one-way gaze: its text, obstructed eye and frontal pose make recognition inseparable from withheld access.
About the Artist
Darya Sokolova
Darya Sokolova is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: painting. Based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Nationality: Kazakh
I create art for women who refuse to blend in. My portraits are bold, symbolic, and designed to be the statement piece in any space.
