Alika Lazarus (b. 2001) is an American-Indian painter based in Florence. Painting is honesty without words. A visual diary, a colourful confession. While eternally subjective to the artist, viewer, and the present, art in its greatest form grants mercy to everything but insincerity.
It’s from this axiom that Lazarus measures and engages all her creative work. Her mission is not to flatter, but to investigate—to discover something true, rather than simply project something decent. This sense of truth comes not from replicating reality, however, but abstracting a deeper essence of feeling out of it.
She regards art the same way she does nature by appreciating the pleasantries of what meets the eye while wrestling with the violent wet roots below. As in nature, she recognises the inherent tension every creative subject possesses: what is seen, what is known, and what remains a mystery. From there, her goal is to capture this friction through a strong intentionality of colour, texture and overall ambiance.
Whether a portrait, a still life, or landscape, Lazarus is guided by the desire to convey a balance of potential and kinetic energy on the canvas—even if the only moving element is the air in front of her.