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Victor Man's psychologically layered, resolutely enigmatic paintings collapse reality and fiction, past and present.

Inspired by art history and literature, Victor Man's paintings invite viewers into a layered dreamlike world of dramatically lit subjects. With a subdued yet evocative palette, Man explores themes of identity, memory, and mythology. His mastery of light and texture imbues his works with a haunting beauty, as if the images exist at the threshold between dreams and reality. Balancing both contemporary and classical painting techniques, Man often plays with symbolism, painting a variety of objects embedded with meaning.

Accompanying Man's first exhibition with David Zwirner in 2025, this catalogue includes a text by the nineteenth-century painter Louis de Planet, translated to English for the first time, in which he recounts his memories of working alongside Eugne Delacroix, an account that has greatly influenced Man's practice.