SILVIE MAHDAL

Silvie Mahdal is a self-taught artist whose hyperrealistic charcoal drawings have quietly found resonance across the world. Her work is neither decorative nor provocative – it is a quiet act of presence.

Often large in scale and intimate in subject, her drawings are not created to impress, but to gently invite. Each piece may take over 100 hours to complete, yet what lingers is not the effort – it is the emotional stillness they carry. These are not drawings that speak loudly – they breathe.

Working solely with charcoal and charcoal pastel, she captures fragments of the female form with both precision and softness – a nape, a lock of hair, the curve of a shoulder. These everyday details, often overlooked, become vast inner landscapes through scale and silence.

Silvie renders fragmented figures with meticulous softness. The contours are precise; the textures, lifelike. And yet – not everything is finished. There is no background. The subject exists in void – not to disappear, but to become more universal. The negative space around is the essence of the drawing. To breathe. Just to be for a while. Her anonymity is not a loss – it is an invitation. By removing context, name, and setting, the figure sheds personal identity and becomes a quiet space for the subject herself and also the viewer’s own perception.

Having exhibited at the Venice Biennale (Personal Structures, 2024), she continues to define a space between realism and transcendence – a direction she calls “subtle realism”. Her figures, faceless or turned away, create room for the viewer’s own reflection. They are neither symbols nor portraits – they are mirrors of innermost essence. Collectors are drawn to her works not only because of their technique, but because they offer an experience. Her pieces live beyond the frame – they hold space. In interiors, they are not decoration – they are quiet companions.

DEVON RODRIGUEZ

Devon Rodriguez (born1996) is an American artist and painter from the South Bronx, New York City. He initially gained recognition for a series of realistic painted portraits of riders on the New York City Subway system. In 2019, he was a finalist in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition for his portrait of sculptor, John Ahearn.

Early life and education Devon Rodriguez was born in 1996 in the South Bronx. At age 8, he began doing graffiti with his friends but, after being arrested at age 13, he turned his attention to portraits. In 2010, he applied for the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, but wasn't accepted. He then attended Samuel Gompers High School in the Bronx for two years before being accepted to attend the High School of Artand Design in 2012. He graduated from that school in 2014. He later attended the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Career While Rodriguez was still in high school, sculptor John Ahearn attended a school portrait exhibit and took notice of Rodriguez's realist oil paintings of subway passengers. Ahearn then asked Rodriguez to be a subject for his own sculpted portrait. The resultant work, two plaster busts of Rodriguez called The Rodriguez Twins, was a finalist for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and was displayed atthe NationalPortrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. in 2016. Rodriguez attended the openinggala at the Gallery in place of Ahearn.

His work, including some of his paintings of subway passengers, would go on to be featured in publications like The New Yorker, The Artist's Magazine, and The New York Times Style Magazine in the following years. Rodriguez also began taking commissions. In 2019, it was announced that Rodriguez's portrait of John Ahearn was a finalist for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, three years after Ahearn's own portrait of Rodriguez received the honor.