Whatever, 2026

Alex Carr  

This is a striking, surrealist-inspired portrait built from bold geometric forms, unexpected proportions, and a deliberately fragmented sense of perspective. The painting presents a stylized figure in profile, dominated by enormous overlapping golden-yellow eyes. One eye appears almost like a circular mask, while the other contains a deep black pupil and concentric forms, giving the face an uncanny, dreamlike quality.

The figure's skin is rendered in muted mauve and dusty pink tones, set against a similarly mauve background that makes the brighter yellows, turquoise, reds, and blues stand out. Turquoise shapes frame the head like exaggerated hair or headphones, while thin black and white contours divide the face into almost architectural sections.

The composition becomes particularly expressive around the hands. Two elongated pink hands reach toward the face and mouth—one seeming to hold or gesture with a lipstick-like object—creating a sense of self-observation, vanity, or theatrical performance. The red lips are sharply simplified into a graphic, almost emblematic shape.

A large ear with a white hoop earring occupies the right side, contrasting with the enormous eyes and giving the figure a deliberately disproportionate, collage-like anatomy. At the bottom, blue-and-white vertical stripes introduce another pattern, while a long diagonal arm cuts dramatically across the composition.

What makes the painting especially interesting is the tension between beauty and absurdity. The polished geometric shapes, strong outlines, and harmonious palette give it the appearance of a carefully constructed fashion illustration, while the distorted anatomy and oversized features make the subject feel detached, playful, and slightly alien.

The title “Whatever" works beautifully with that attitude. It suggests indifference—a shrug at conventional beauty, proportion, identity, or even the need for the viewer to make everything “make sense." The painting seems to say:

Overall, it feels fashion-forward, surreal, playful, feminine, and deliberately unconcerned with realism.