Swasti Loya
My work focuses on fragments of the human body, most often hands and faces, as sites of expression, memory and quiet intensity. I isolate elements of the human figure to draw attention to gesture, touch and the subtle emotional weight carried by small movements. A hand resting, a face partially obscured, or a gaze held in suspension becomes a way of suggesting presence without narrative certainty.
I work primarily in oil paint and charcoal, occasionally etching and wire sculpture too. I enjoy letting each medium shape the emotional tone of the image. Oil enables a slower, more deliberate engagement with the surface, where layers build density and flesh feels constructed over time. Charcoal and etching, by contrast, introduce immediacy and fragility, marks that feel provisional, erased or reworked, echoing the instability of memory and perception. Moving between these processes allows me to explore the tension between permanence and impermanence.
Much of my practice is driven by observation, but not strict realism. I am interested in how distortion, cropping and unfinished areas can heighten psychological presence rather than diminish it. By leaving parts unresolved, I invite the viewer to linger, to project and to complete the image themselves. Ultimately, my work aims to capture moments of stillness that feel intimate yet ambiguous, where the human form becomes both familiar and strangely distant.