Advisory Spotlight: Mike Silva’s London Paintings
Exhibition view: Mike Silva, London Portraits, Interiors and Still Lives, The Approach, London (20 May–2 August 2020). Courtesy The Approach.
Silva’s interior images are particularly emotive; mundane rooms delicately rendered in soft hues are lovingly observed with dappled light flickering through the windows. The oil on linen Kitchen Window (2020), for example, pays attention to ordinary objects arranged around a kitchen sink, elevating them to the status of artefact. Moments from everyday life become magical and profound.
The men depicted in his portraits are often dressed in sports clothing or nineties streetwear, but Silva captures them in intimate moments, their gaze sometimes tenderly directed towards him; their hands are treated with the same degree of care as lips and eyes. —[O]
Main image: Exhibition view: Mike Silva, London Portraits, Interiors and Still Lives, The Approach, London (20 May–2 August 2020). Courtesy The Approach.
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