Man and woman by Raquel Reis
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Oil on Arches paper
Dimensions: 35 x 35 cm
Year: 2014
Price: $682.00 USD
Status: available
In “Man and Woman,” I explore the uneasy space where intimacy and distance exist at the same time. These two figures are physically close, yet their expressions seem to turn inward, guarded and uncertain. I wanted their shared space to feel charged with everything that can remain unspoken between people: affection, frustration, dependence, suspicion, and longing. I distorted and fragmented their faces and bodies to reflect the psychological complexity of a relationship rather than its outward appearance. The vivid reds, cool blues, tender pinks, and sudden yellow create emotional shifts, moving between warmth and confrontation. Loose, gestural brushstrokes keep the figures unsettled, as if their identities and feelings are changing even while we look at them. The compressed composition intensifies their closeness, but the surrounding gray atmosphere holds a sense of isolation. I did not intend to tell one fixed story. Instead, I wanted to create a space where viewers might recognize something from their own relationships. I hope the painting invites reflection on how connection and conflict can coexist, and how intimacy can be both a source of strength and a place of profound uncertainty.
Why collect this work?
Two enlarged, asymmetrical faces press into a square field, making physical proximity read less as union than as mutual scrutiny.
- Reis describes her figuration as emotional translation rather than description. In this work, displaced features and incomplete bodily boundaries make that stated approach legible without fixing the figures to a single narrative.
- The figures overlap, yet their gazes do not meet. Apparent reds, blues, pinks and yellow separate their bodies, while the shallow grey surround denies them visual escape from one another.
- The documented medium is oil on Arches paper, measuring 35 by 35 cm. In the photograph, curved strokes remain individually visible across faces, hair and clothing, keeping contours active rather than settled.
- For a collection concerned with contemporary figuration, this 2014 painting shows how the conventions of the paired portrait can shift from likeness toward relational ambiguity. Neither person possesses a fully independent outline.
About the Artist
Raquel Reis
Raquel Reis is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: painting. Based in Madrid, ES.
Nationality: Brazilian
My work is rooted in sensation, perception, and gesture.
