Artwork focus: iDeath by Michal Ozibko
I first saw Ozibko's work in 2010 when iDeath II was featured as the Visitor's Choice Winner in the selection of BP Portrait Award pieces that exhibited in my local gallery, the Usher in Lincoln. It grabbed my attention then by its sense of stillness and serenity, the way the girl in the painting is completely lost in her own world with her earphones in. The absence of background emphasises this, failing to put the image into context. Therefore we can assume that wherever she is the world, her attention is completely focused on her phone. With her eyes down, the viewer can't even meet her gaze, however in the first piece in this series, her gaze is directly forwards. This gives the painting a very eerie, almost sinister feel. Ozbiko's use of delicate, wispy brush strokes with the softly blended oils make the paintings seem dream-like, again reinforcing the separation from reality, and his choice of colour also affects the mood of the paintings; the deep blue background and cool tones in the skin connoting sadness or even, as the title suggests, death.