Upon first glance, the drawings of Samantha Messias appear to be photographs captured with astounding clarity. However, each one of Messias’ works is entirely constructed with pencil and charcoal. Messias’ hyperrealistic drawings are as laden with stunning visual dexterity as they are with emotional meaning. Having endured a traumatic childhood, Messias turned to art as a healing mechanism. After graduating university in 2012, the artist discovered Hyperrealism and has since rendered the world around her in piercing detail.
Focusing predominantly on portraiture, Messias pushes her subjects to the foreground of the composition, thus inviting the viewer to observe the microscopic clarity that comprises every plane of her drawings. In works such as The Alchemist (2017), a weathered, bearded man gazes fixedly towards the viewer. One can observe the deep crevices of wrinkles and clusters of sunspots, stray hairs, and various idiosyncrasies imbedded in his skin with exceptional detail; Messias leaves no stone unturned as she presents this man as absolute and extraordinarily unique. By unapologetically displaying the various nuances in each one of her subjects, Messias finds perfection in the imperfect.
