MIKE DARGAS

Born in Cologne, Germany, in 1983, Dargas began his practice as a child, composing large-scale old master paintings in chalk on the pavement, in front of Cologne Cathedral.  Immediately recognised for his prodigious talent, at the age of eleven he was accepted into one of Cologne’s most prestigious art schools - the only child in a class full of adults. “Looking back, I’m wondering why the other grownups didn’t intimidate me at all. I just went there to paint – it felt pretty natural.”

Taking inspiration from artists such as Gottfried Helnwein and H.R Giger, Dargas purses a unique form of hyperrealism in his oil paintings. Believing “faces are a mirror of our soul,” his two-metre high canvases depict the close ups of people – young and old, beautiful and fragile, gentle and tough – often partially covered in dripping liquid such as honey, chocolate or molten gold. “I was searching for a material that could cover a specific ground, yet is transparent enough to see what’s underneath… I was fascinated by honey as a liquid material and it became the base element.”