Victor Man: The Absence That We Are | David Zwirner
In his paintings, Victor Man consistently references colour-drenched early 20th century symbolism and expressionism, viewed through a filter of gothic darkness. Several of these creepily addictive paintings are currently on show at David Zwirner.
Man’s portraits share impassive facial expressions, bright green skin and scary surroundings. They’re beset by skulls, ghosts and thorny plants. They’re stoically stone faced despite these apparent torments.
Maternity (Curve Delle Anime) (2025)
To hammer home the spooky, backward-looking nature of the art, the show’s press release quotes from a crepuscular text by Georg Trakl, an Austrian expressionist poet who died in 1914. “The flickering candlestick dies in slender hands. Hour of lonely sinisterness, mute awakening in the hallway in the sallow web of the moon…” And so on.
Overwrought words that would link as well to Trakl’s contemporaries Kandinsky or Franz Marc as they do to Victor Man. Though the paintings at David Zwirner are more morbid than either of them. But anyway, as I said before, addictively so.
Victor Man: The Absence That We Are is at David Zwirner (London). 18 September - 31 October 2025