Empress Butterfly

Empress Butterfly is a work by British artist Ryan Mosley (Chesterfield, United Kingdom, 1980). Opulent, fantastical, or just plain absurd, Mosley’s visual universe is populated by a motley collection of characters, from harlequins to cactus men to bearded skulls. These extravagant protagonists come together in delightfully inexplicable narratives, crazy scenes that mix carnival, burlesque and pure comedy. Describing himself as “obsessively drawn to painting figures”, the artist cites influences such as Goya, Philip Guston, and Odilon Redon, along with Greek myths and folklore. Mosley often creates his images spontaneously, using the brush as a pencil to build up large-scale images through layers of translucent washes.