Hammered in Gold: Mixed-Media Portraits by Alexis Peskine

French-Brazilian artist Alexis Peskine creates monumental portraits of the African diaspora using an unusual combination of nails, wood, natural pigments and precious metals. His pieces are constructed from thousands of nails hammered into wooden surfaces at different depths. Their varying sizes and carefully controlled placement work almost like halftone dots, allowing faces to emerge from dense fields of black and shimmering gold.

Many of the wooden supports are stained with coffee, earth, hibiscus and other organic materials, giving the backgrounds rich, weathered surfaces. Gold, silver and palladium leaf applied to the nail heads catches the light, causing features to rise out of dark silhouettes and shift as the viewer moves.

The nail also has a deeper significance within Alexis’s practice. His portraits reference the spiritually charged Minkisi power figures of the Congo Basin and explore Black identity, resilience, displacement and the histories of the African diaspora. Across the series, his subjects look composed and self-possessed, their presence amplified by the physical weight and luminosity of the materials.

See more of Alexis Peskine’s remarkable mixed-media work on Instagram.

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