“Simple, colourful and expressive. Everyone is unique like a psychological fingerprint.”

— Jason Boyd Kinsella

Composing a human face with stacks of individual units that are layered and harmoniously balanced, the present lot exemplifies Jason Boyd Kinsella’s iconic psychological portraiture. Digging into theories and methods that investigate how our personalities are shaped, classified and differentiated, the Canadian artist probes into questions about ‘who [we] really are’ behind an idealised representation of ‘who [we] want to be.’ ⁱ Exploring the medium of painting as a psychoanalytical playground, he engages critically with the traditional genre of portraiture, seeking unconventional expressions for the varying attributes that diversify individual minds. Through Kinsella’s works, the artist deconstructs familiar human forms into fragmented geometric shapes that operate as a playful experiment to map out the complex topography of human psychological makeup.

Mining into human minds and their kaleidoscopic manifestations, Kinsella takes on a colourist approach, leveraging a highly legible and simplistic vocabulary to encapsulate the myriad hues of personalities. In the present lot, the compound of geometric shapes is enlivened by vivid variations of colour: forming the face are brown and pink, with teeth rendered in white and hair in various shades of blue, mixed with green, dark red and purple. Deforming an entity into an assemblage of shapes, Kinsella draws on a broader art historical lineage connected with Modernist pioneers including Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore and Jean-Michel Basquiat. His reimagination of portraiture transcribes a Cubist syntax of deconstruction into a means of sculptural reconstruction, infused with spontaneous playfulness.

While evoking the mannerisms of Old Masters, the present work exhibits a unique visuality featuring a quasi-digital sensibility. Looking closely, one notices how Kinsella’s meticulous hand-drawing conjures a stunningly smooth and seamless surface—nearly inorganic and otherworldly. Technically, Kinsella utilises tools of technology along with traditional techniques, adopting 3D rendering software to simulate various possibilities in structural arrangement while testing contrasts between light and shadow, as well as combinations of colours and forms. Navigating the fine line between a conventional analogue approach and futuristic digital aesthetics, the work further addresses a contemporary experience of our Digital Age in face of the dissolving boundary between reality and virtuality. Kinsella’s psychological portraiture thus acts as more than an inward exploration of individual personalities, but it also sheds light on the performative nature underneath our social personae specifically in this era of social media.

Represented by Perrotin and collaborating with Unit London, Jason Boyd Kinsella has been the subject of numerous group and solo shows with the two galleries across continents. The present lot is part of an important corpus featured in his debuting exhibition Fragments at Unit London in 2021. In October 2024, Kinsella concluded his first solo show Ghost in the Machine in Asia at Perrotin, Seoul. Most recently, a solo installation of new paintings by the artist was presented by Perrotin at Frieze Los Angeles 2025. Kinsella currently lives and works in Oslo and Los Angeles.

ⁱ Jason Boyd Kinsella, quoted in Oliver Kupper,  ‘Pop Psychology and Picasso: An Interview with Jason Boyd Kinsella On His Artistic Roots’, Autre, 4 November 2024, online