SKIO "Mensch & Form"

Faces without a gaze, bodies caught in a grid of cool geometry: SKIO paints the anonymity of the modern city with surgical precision. In his compositions, fragmented figures merge with stylized, often rigorously constructed architecture — a subtle dialogue between emotionally charged figuration and cool abstraction. Where the eyes should sit as mirrors of the soul, he deliberately leaves a void: it invites projection and makes the anonymity of modern urban life immediately tangible.His paintings reflect a present in which the self increasingly dissolves into the system — the uniformity our society imposes on the individual, as well as the beauty ideals that women in particular can barely escape. Some of his figures appear to wear VR headsets — a nod to a world in which reality and virtual reality have long since merged. Remarkably, although every image is painted entirely by hand, the aesthetic often recalls AI-generated imagery — an ambiguity SKIO plays with quite deliberately.Stylistically, SKIO combines the spirit of Bauhaus with Surrealism: he seeks a balance between complexity and minimalism, between softness and structure, lending his portraits an almost sculptural quality. His exhibition "Mensch & Form" (Human & Form) at Pretty Portal was, to date, the most consistent distillation of this visual language — a quiet, poetic examination of what it means to be human today, caught between withdrawal and visibility, structure and fragility.SKIO, born Nicolas Scauri, was born in 1980 in Nice and now lives in Paris. He studied graphic design in Manchester and industrial design at the Institut Européen de Design in Toulon. He painted his first murals in 1993 in the Nice region; after a phase of experimenting with typography andgraffiti, he found his way — via influences from pop and television culture — to his present figurative-architectural visual language. His work has been shown at exhibitions and festivals in Paris, London, Mexico City and Shanghai; in recent years, SKIO has increasingly come into focus among international urban art collectors.