Californian painter Ryan Martin has produced a series of powerful portraits illustrating the two major themes running through his work: the complicated relationship between man and the environment and the challenges that youth will have to face because of climate change.
This series was presented at the Elizabeth Houston Gallery in New York and shows the faces of teenagers surrounded by nature, plants, living beings as if they were crowned by the surrounding nature.

Flora and fauna, which not only surround human faces but also envelop them, suggest a more timeless relationship with nature.

If we look closely, we will notice that each portrait is crossed by a ray of light and that these faces appear to be bathed in sunlight: this indicates Ryan’s South Californian roots which have influenced much of his earlier work.

These portraits invite us to reconnect with nature and warn of the dangers of the disappearance of the species that envelop the bodies of these young people. A sensitive and thought-provoking admission of vulnerability.