Graduate Exhibition

Kristone Capistrano’s practice is driven by an underlying fascination with the human person, their voices, their faces and their capacity to seize sympathy. He describes the human face as “a mysterious living site, etched with a beauty and dignity that beckons portrayal”. Much of Kristone's work takes the form of large-scale charcoal portraits that combine ideals of classical realism with post-internet and post-photographic sensibilities. The gigantic scaling of these faces, rendered manually by hand, exudes a sense of beguiling tactility and dexterity that fixes the viewer’s gaze. The repetitive actions of mark-making multiplied by the hours and days required to complete these works imbue the finished portrait with a heavy sense of presence. Unlike the multitude of faces crowding our digital screens, Kristone seeks to create portraits with a solidity that cannot be ‘swiped’ away.