Figure It Out

Figure it out The artist Trate believes the faces of women belie truth and emotion

Canadian artist Trate was to have unveiled his latest collection of works, Technicolour Malaise, to the London art scene via a gallery show in April. Corona virus put paid to that, so fingers crossed physical distancing will ease next year and the show can go on in 2021. In the meantime we’re bringing you a selection of Trate’s most recent works. They showcase his haunting aesthetic and ability to capture human sensibilities in deceptively simple form. He’s infatuated with how people’s experiences are etched into their physical traits and has developed his artistic ability to reimagine the human form and expose inner thoughts and emotions on canvas. Acting as a counterforce to the aesthetics of the digital age, where seemingly perfect social media imagery weighs on our perception of existence, this self-taught artist offers a raw, humane lens with which to look at humanity. He chooses to go by the name Trate and has dedicated himself to honing his artistic craft in private for over 20 years. He struggled with dyslexia as a child, so perhaps not surprisingly art became his chosen means of self-expression. That said he tried his hand at sculpture and woodwork as a teenager before being finding that the medium he loved best was painting. He uses handmade paints mixed with large ratios of walnut, safflower and linseed oils to achieve works that are deeply textural - a single work can take two months to dry. Now living in London, the artist behind the alias has had a nomadic life, with many years spent travelling and exploring different pursuits. The latter range from tree-planting in the harsh, remote forests of Northern Canada, to several years of humanitarian work with the UN in Mali, to living on a farm commune near the Swiss Alps, to working in finance in Buenos Aires, Mexico City and London. The vibrancy of these diverse experiences, distilled through his imagination, ultimately acted as inspiration for his fascinating and impactful figurative work.

This page and facing page: Trate’s work depicts the rawness of the human condition through reimagined physical forms, oil laden brushstrokes and a vivid aesthetic

Trate’s women explore human emotion in deceptively simple form