Familiar Strangers

 

In Familiar Strangers, a series of blurred portraits presents faces that hover on the edge of recognition. Each painting captures an individual in subtle, intimate detail—yet their features are deliberately blurred into obscurity. The result is a haunting interplay between presence and absence, evoking the way memory alters the faces we once knew.

 

These portraits are not of specific people, but of the sensation of knowing: the moment you lock eyes with someone on the street and wonder if they were once part of your life—or perhaps still are. The work invites viewers to confront the fallibility of perception, the unreliability of memory, and the deep human urge to find connection in the faces of others.

 

Nate Szarmach

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Nate Szarmach is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher in Austin, Texas. His works revolve around ideas of memory, perception, and subconsciousness. His style often combines hyperrealism and abstraction to create unique combinations of images and styles. 

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