Belgian painter Cris Brodahl creates beautifully soft grayscale portraits, with a collage-style that layers surrealist imagery over human forms, executed with photo-realistic precision.

Her work is presented in A#3, with a selection from the exhibition ‘Pink Floyds’ at Marc Foxx Gallery in LA in December 2004. Through the ambiguity of her technique and its exacting resemblance to photography, Brodahl causes the responder to question the composition of the pieces and the blending of contexts of the two seemingly fused identities within each work.

These particular pieces feature disparate yet romantic symbology, such as a porcelain-like statue with a superimposed oriental face, a praying female figure disappearing into a cloud of smoke and covered by an oversized blonde wig, and a glamorous profile portrait of a woman seemingly torn to reveal a blossoming tree.

It is poignant work with an underlying dark beauty: post-modern surrealism with a quirky romance.

More images below, courtesy of Marc Foxx Gallery: