Serie: Ekman 6 (2026)
"Aesthetics without substance is empty"
Artist statement
The artist, Zailou (b. 1995), explores how identity is formed and continuously transformed within the tension of inner states through acrylic painting. The human figure functions as a point of departure, not as a portrait, but as a symbolic surface of projection. The figures represent less individual persons than psychological states, transitions, and inner processes.
The works emerge through an interplay of acrylic painting and drawing, shaped by deliberate layering and overlaying. Lines, marks, and fields of color remain visible, generating a field of tension between control and intuition, order and chaos. This openness is an essential aspect of the process, allowing ruptures and shifts to remain present rather than being resolved.
The focus lies not on depicting a completed state, but on the process of transformation and inner movement. The works position themselves within a contemporary figurative painting practice that moves between abstraction and figuration, engaging both personal and universal questions.
The Making of a Self
This is a six-part painting series that examines identity as a layered, continuously shifting construct. Rather than following a linear narrative, the works trace an inner progression shaped by memory, perception, and transformation.
The series moves from pre-verbal states through phases of tension, withdrawal and selfprotection, toward processes of change and inward vision. Each painting functions as part of a larger system in which meaning emerges through repetition, variation, and accumulation.
Fragmented and doubled figures recur throughout the series, suggesting multiplicity, identification, and the coexistence of vulnerability and defense. Distortions, markings, and layered gestures act as carriers of psychological residue without referring to specific events.
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