2025 Finalists

This work explores the intersection of inner psychological states and the physical body – a point where the body becomes a battlefield. The figure depicted is not a specific person; rather, she embodies a shared, yet deeply personal conflict between the desire to simply exist and the necessity to defend oneself, between the longing for freedom and the pressure of external limitation.

The title “Rights” raises questions that are still often silenced or seen as uncomfortable: What rights do we have to our own bodies? To our emotions? To our presence without explanation or justification? Are our rights real, or merely symbolic? And do we still have to fight for them?

This is a portrait of a woman, but not a portrait in the traditional sense. It is a critique of the male gaze – a historical and cultural lens that has reduced the female body to something passive, soft, sensual, and accessible. The figure here resists that gaze. She is uninviting, strong, physically active – painted from within, not to be looked at, but to exist for herself. Her body is not offered up to the viewer’s pleasure or projection – it becomes a tool, a territory, even a weapon.

The painting is executed expressively and intuitively, using sharp contrasts between red, purple, flesh tones, and shadow. The colours are not realistic – they amplify the emotional atmosphere and heighten the sense of tension. Lines break off, run wild, as if they cannot be contained – like emotions. This spontaneity allows the painting to breathe, to move, rather than freeze into form.

The gestures are exaggerated, expressive, almost theatrical – as if trying to burst out of the frame. The positioning of the hands serves not just as a compositional element but as an emotional code: rejection, protection, resistance. The face is partially obscured, creating space for the viewer’s own projections. One might see in it personal fears, unresolved questions, or fragments of memory.

The pose balances between strength and vulnerability, aggression and defence. This duality is central to the work – it reflects the reality in which women’s rights may appear to be won, yet in truth remain fragile, conditional, easily revoked.

This work does not simply invite the viewer to look – it asks them to confront. To confront discomfort, the self, and the question: do I recognise another’s right to be unapologetic, uncomfortable, unsoftened?

(16/25)