Conquest

My latest painting in the Portrait of Heroes collection, Conquest, is finally finished. It’s easily the biggest, boldest, and most complex piece I’ve created in this series—three months of pushing paint, pushing ideas, and pushing myself. Seeing it now on display at Joseph Fine Arts, alongside some of my other works, feels like a genuine milestone.

Keeping the Portrait of Heroes spirit alive

Portrait of Heroes has come a long way since I first began the series in 2017. From the start, I’ve been obsessed with how society elevates certain people through carefully crafted images, while the real backbone of the world—the ordinary, unseen individuals—rarely get a spotlight. This series has always been my way of challenging that imbalance.

Classical portraiture was the original image‑editing software. Long before filters and feeds, people commissioned artists to paint them as stronger, richer, more powerful—essentially, as the idealised version of themselves. When I realised how closely that mirrors the way we curate our identities today, the whole concept snapped into focus.

That’s why the Blue Demon mask became such a central symbol. In Lucha Libre, the mask transforms the wearer into something larger than life. By placing it onto historical figures, I’m highlighting the fact that we’ve always worn masks—literal or metaphorical—to shape how we want to be seen.

The series took shape during a period when nostalgia for a “better past” was everywhere. People were longing for a golden age that, in reality, was heavily edited and mythologised. Portrait of Heroes became my way of questioning that longing and exposing how selective our memories of history can be.

At its core, this collection is about identity—how we build it, perform it, and project it. I’m not criticising the instinct to curate ourselves; I’m simply holding up a mirror to it. These works are playful, but they’re also meant to provoke. They ask you to rethink who gets labelled a hero, and why.

A sharper connection to the present

Most of the titles in this series have leaned into fantasy, but with Conquest, I wanted to anchor the work more firmly in the present. With global tensions rising and conflict dominating headlines, the idea of power—and the absurdity of it—felt impossible to ignore.

The painting depicts a Napoleonic figure, but the point is that he could be swapped out for any modern leader driven by ego, legacy, or the desire to dominate a narrative. The costume changes, but the performance stays the same.

In Conquest, I’m playing with that continuity. I want you to look at the figure and question what’s authentic and what’s constructed. The heroic pose, the grandeur, the implied story—it’s all theatre. And that theatre hasn’t changed much over the centuries. Only the tools have.

Watch the making of video

Watch the full making of video below or click here to view it YouTube.
If you enjoy it, leave a comment or share it – your support genuinely helps us continue creating these moments.