Portraits Appear and Vanish in Hernán Marín’s Double-Sided Drawings
Colombian visual artist Hernán Marín is creating striking graphite works on frosted acrylic that seem to shift between presence and disappearance. Rather than treating the surface as a neutral support, Marín uses the material itself as an active part of the image, allowing each piece to transform depending on the viewer’s position.
Viewed from one side, a softly obscured figure emerges with sharply rendered details in the foreground. Turn the acrylic panel around, and those details fall away, revealing an entirely different emphasis in the portrait.
Each work pairs a crisp drawing on one side with a hazier, more ethereal counterpart on the other, creating the sensation of an image suspended somewhere between memory and apparition.
The effect is especially compelling because of the frosted acrylic’s depth and translucency. Marín’s figures feel embedded within the material rather than simply drawn on top of it, giving the portraits an uncanny, atmospheric quality. Empty space becomes more than background here; it acts like fog, surrounding the subjects and lending them weight, mood, and mystery.
Marín’s latest body of work shows how a simple medium like graphite can become something unexpectedly dimensional when paired with an unconventional surface. You can see more of his work through his portfolio and Instagram.
Images © Copyright Hernán Marín.
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