SWEET FACES: Silvio Porzionato/Laurence Jenkell: Season Opening Vernissage

Oblong Contemporary is delighted to open the new season with Sweet Faces, an exhibition that brings together two distinctive artistic voices — Italian painter Silvio Porzionato and French sculptor Laurence Jenkell.

The show creates a dialogue between Porzionato’s monumental portraits and Jenkell’s iconic candy sculptures, exploring identity, memory, and transformation. While Porzionato captures the essence of humanity in statuary close-ups, elevating everyday faces into universal archetypes, Jenkell transforms candy into a symbol of joy, nostalgia, and desire, twisting industrial materials into luminous works of Pop Art.

Opening on 15 October, from 7 PM at Oblong Contemporary, Al Khayat Art Avenue, Dubai, Sweet Faces invites visitors to discover a vibrant interplay between figuration and sculpture — between the depth of the human gaze and the sweetness of childhood dreams.

Biographies
Silvio Porzionato (b. 1971, Italy) is an acclaimed figurative painter known for his large-scale oil portraits based on realistic photographic references. His works transform everyday subjects into timeless icons of humanity. Exhibited at major international fairs and the 54th Venice Biennale, Porzionato has also realized projects such as Temporal Code (MACS, 2013) and 007 Portraits (Aston Martin, 2021).

Laurence Jenkell (b. 1965, France) is a self-taught sculptor internationally recognized for her Wrapping Candy series, created in plexiglass, metal, marble, and resin. Her colorful and dynamic works, at the intersection of Pop Art and design, have been exhibited worldwide and are celebrated as universal icons of memory and desire.