Created during the artist's first year as a painter, Le Grande Zombie captures the unfiltered urgency of discovery—where instinct leads and refinement takes a back seat. The influence of Jean-Michel Basquiat is evident in the frenetic energy, symbolic layering, and unapologetically direct mark-making, but the piece stands on its own as a personal exploration of voice and visual language.
A central, mask-like figure anchors the composition, its exaggerated grin and crowned head radiating both humor and unease. Surrounding it, a vivid field of blues, reds, yellows, and whites becomes a playground of symbols, gestures, and fragmented forms. Scribbles, shapes, and loosely rendered objects—fish, stars, abstracted patterns—create a sense of coded narrative, as if the surface is holding multiple conversations at once.
There’s a deliberate tension between chaos and structure. While the marks feel spontaneous and almost primitive, the composition holds together through balance, repetition, and color relationships. The use of pencil and crayon alongside acrylic reinforces the raw, tactile quality of the work, emphasizing process over polish.
This painting leans heavily into the “loud conversation,” yet rewards close inspection with quieter moments—subtle textures, erased lines, and layered corrections that reveal the artist thinking in real time. It’s a snapshot of artistic emergence: bold, imperfect, and undeniably alive.
This was actually the first piece ever sold by the artist—as he was hanging it for a show that started the following day.
• 16x13x1.5 in.
• Acrylic paint, pencil, and crayon on canvas
