Silver Surfer

Museum piece in how it is constructed with the gradiation of colors and the human body in this classical life study pose.

Gorgeous classical Surfer

Alex Maleev does it again with a bold (yet deliciously simple) composition, striking color sensibility, and peerless execution.  The way he rounds the edges here (the yellow is rounded in, but the reddish-brown is rounded -out-) adds so much to the narrative of this one for me; I love where this one takes me as a viewer.  The Surfer has always been a complex character, and I'm not sure if it was started as some sort of pop art pun by Stan Lee ("The Silver Surfer?  Now -there's- a guy who's prone to reflection!") but his feet have always been in many worlds simultaneously as he constantly works to achieve true balance: banished to Earth after roaming the cosmos; mighty cosmic warrior humbled by a butterfly; savior of life and herald of Death...  Like all Brilliant (capital B) art, I love how this piece captures that, along with (especially with) all the answers it -doesn't- provide, like the vast cosmos themselves: is he pulling worlds closer together here, or working to keep them apart?  (For their own good?)  Is he struggling to finally achieve the balance he constantly seeks, or is he railing against it?  Is he just doing yoga on his board?  We'll never know.  Or perhaps we'll all know, exactly.

Brilliant piece, Neil.  This is brain-meltingly beautiful.