Damo, 2013

“People familiar with Adamo Macri’s portraits may well experience an aesthetic shock to see a picture of the artist with his eyes wide open. So many of his self-portraits depict the eyes averted, lowered, askance, or rarely looking directly at the viewer that I was taken aback by a recent picture, entitled Damo 2013. There are a few other pictures in his Facebook oeuvre wherein the artist opens his eyes and stares out of the canvas, Self-Portrait, 2013, for example, but that is a study in shadows, and the gaze seems reluctant and melancholy. In Damo 2013 Macri confronts the viewer boldly, provocatively, no hesitation, no flinching, a full depiction of the apparent Macri face without accoutrements, ornaments, masks or shadows, and one might appropriately assume, without a trace of clothing, even if the body from the neck down is out of sight.”

“Although we may express what we think we see behind the dark eyewear, Macri’s eyes are not visible, so we can’t really determine what his ideas or feelings can possibly be based upon what is hidden. As in many Macri portraits, the lenses reflect, they do not reveal. And that, it seems to me, is central to Macri’s vision, so to speak. When he chooses to reveal his eyes, as he does in Damo 2013, among other works, they rivet attention.”


Damo, 2013