A s artists of colour continue to surge in the contemporary art scene, 28-years old self-taught artist Marcus Brutus is one of many talented emerging from this phenomenon. Maryland-born and currently Queens-based, Brutus captures attention with his paintings of African American diasporic subjects in daily settings. This year, the artist's fourth solo exhibition is due at Harper's Gallery, following a series of solo and group exhibitions held worldwide. As a figurative artist, Brutus is a raconteur who conveys emotions and the history of black experience and human nature, drawing influence from different aspects in life.

Black Ballerinas is rendered with the artist's signature vibrant saturated palette, accentuating the prominent contours of the dancing figures to create an exaggerated reality evocative of contemporary portrait artists such as Henry Taylor and Alice Neel. The motif of ballerinas, which one may associate with Edgar Degas's dancer series, is here with dark-skinned figures that challenge the old-fashioned depiction of the subject. At the centre of Brutus's creative process is to appreciate shared human experience. Instead of depicting grand historical moments, the artist opted for the fleeting, seemingly insignificant daily snippets and, through reconfigurations, encourages a reinspection to the world while praising humanity's shared beauty and love.

眾多非白人藝術家於當代藝壇崛起，年方28歲、自學成才的馬庫斯·布魯特斯亦是這批後起之秀的其中一員。布魯特斯出生於美國馬里蘭州，現駐紐約皇后區，以描繪非裔美藉僑民日常生活的作品而備受關注。他的第四場個展今年在哈珀畫廊（Harper’s Gallery）舉行，其後更在世界各地舉辦個展及參與群展。布魯特斯是一位具象畫家，他的靈感來自生活中的不同層面，而且擅長以畫作述說各種情緒、歷史中的黑人經歷及人類本性。布魯特斯在《黑肌膚的芭蕾舞者》中採用了標誌性的鮮艷飽滿色調，強調舞者鮮明突出的輪廓，營造出一個誇張的現實世界，有如亨利．泰勒（Henry Taylor）及愛麗絲·尼爾 (Alice Neel) 等當代人像畫家的風格。芭蕾舞者的主題，令人聯想起埃德加．德加（Edgar Degas）的舞者系列，而Brutus筆下的黑肌膚舞者則彷彿是在挑戰過往的畫作對芭蕾舞者過氣的呈現手法。布魯特斯的創作宗旨是欣賞並讚美人類的共同體驗。比起描繪重要的歷史時刻，他選擇呈現一些貌似不重要並轉瞬即逝的日常片段，並透過他的重新詮釋，鼓勵觀眾以新的角度審視這個世界，欣賞人與人之間互相分享的美和愛。