Lesley Wengembo Portrait oil Painting.

Lesley Wengembo Portrait oil Painting.

20 x 20 cm

Lesley Wengembo was born in the highlands of Papua New Guniea, Lesley grew up seeing art as an escape from the harsh realities of life. Painting portraits of older men and women from his PNG village, his practice is a way of preserving his cultural ties and history. In recent years his work has focused on hyper-realistic portraiture, mainly capturing indigenous faces dressed up in their traditional attire. He says: “As an indigenous artist, I try to capture an essence of what is still alive today that is expressed through their faces before it dies out”.
Two-time Archibald Prize entrant began stretching as a young boy. He is now working on a new “passion” project, which has brought him back home.
The “Seven Faces of Mother Earth” mixes poetry with painting, music and film, because he said people could “appreciate art in different ways”.