The itch

The Itch is a raw, psychologically charged work that seizes the viewer immediately with its stripped-down intensity. Its power lies not in depiction but in evocation—the sense that what we are witnessing is not just an image, but a condition, a compulsion, or even an existential loop.

Rendered in stark contrasts of black, red, and white, the figures are delineated with minimal, urgent lines. The red gestures—thick, serpentine, and organic—snake across and through the forms like a force both internal and external. They appear to originate within the body and extend outward, or perhaps the reverse: invasive, impossible to contain. This ambiguity is central to the work’s emotional weight. Is the itch a desire? A torment? A need?

The figures, faceless and fused, suggest both embrace and entrapment. Their hands—outlined with obsessive clarity—dig, scratch, intertwine. This repetitive motion, magnified by the red streaks that follow their contours, turns the itch into something ritualistic. The act of scratching becomes a metaphor for longing, obsession, or unresolved trauma—something that cannot be healed, only rehearsed.

Visually, the composition is claustrophobic but electrified. The black background is not void but pressure: it intensifies the red, amplifies the tension. The outlines, like nervous systems exposed, pulse with energy even in stillness.

The Itch is not a narrative but a state—primal, bodily, and unresolved. It speaks of compulsion, intimacy, and the paradox of relief through destruction. One cannot look at it without feeling the friction it depicts—a visceral pull between release and restraint.

The Itch/ Mixed Media/ 15 x 11 cm