Introducing 'ICONS'

This series of paintings blends Pop Art, surreal elements, refined realism, and comic-book aesthetics in a richly opulent visual language that challenges the relationship between contemporary and traditional art.

Reimagined figures such as Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill, David Bowie, and Salvador Dalí transcend likeness to become symbols of cultural legacy. Gilded elements lend a sense of timeless luxury, elevating the series into a celebration of iconography, prestige, and visual grandeur.

grandeur.

Explore the series

The ace of spades

100 x 100 cm - Oil & Acrylic painting

This piece captures Sir Winston Churchill - the indomitable British Bulldog and wartime Prime Minister.
Encircling this regal visage is a gold frame, bordered by explosive red, white, and blue drips evoking his patriotic fervour.
Prominently featured is the golden Ace of Spades insignia, symbolising Churchill as the ultimate high-stakes strategist. The Ace of Spades is traditionally the most powerful card in the deck-the “ace of aces”. Churchill similarly emerged as the dominant figure at Britain’s most critical moment. He wasn’t just another leader; he became the figure of resolve, the last card played when defeat seemed likely.
The masterful gambit of hard truths and inevitability.
Churchill’s cigar projects calm under pressure. In moments of existential crisis, he appears unhurried, even indulgent. That contrast, luxury amid catastrophe, signals defiance. In paint, the cigar becomes a quiet act of defiance.

Is this what you seek?

100 x 100 cm - Oil & Acrylic painting

Marilyn Monroe was revolutionary not because she fit Hollywood’s system, but because she quietly rewrote it from the inside. Before Marilyn, femininity in cinema was either decorative or obedient. She made softness, sensuality, and vulnerability active forces.
Her acting style felt modern before “modern” acting was common. Hesitations, breath, pauses, awkwardness. She allowed imperfection on screen.
At the height of her fame, she changed the mold in show business, challenging the studios for better pay, better roles and creative control.
The right side of the composition shows a polished image that exudes glamour, while while the left shifts to bold comic book style with vibrant outlines and colours in turquoise, to highlight her multilayered, complex persona behind the image.
Diamonds are the hardest natural substance; Marilyn is remembered as vulnerable and emotionally exposed. That contrast is crucial. The diamond is the armour she is expected to wear- hard, brilliant, unbreakable - while the person beneath remained fragile.

The show must go on

100 x 100 cm - Oil & Acrylic on canvas

Before Freddie, rock singers were often macho, restrained, or gritty. He brought theatre, camp, operatic drama, and flamboyance into rock, turning concerts into performances rather than just gigs. His command of the stage (most famously at Live Aid 1985) set a new gold standard for live
performance.
With Queen, he fused rock, opera, pop, vaudeville, disco, and classical music, often within a single song.
The painting features elements which describe his particular way of expression: the performative colours - strategic but without an obvious written rule, the heavily decorated, gilded eccentric crown, paired with a golden symbol of the King of Diamonds, are to show his glamour and dominance within the creative process.
The featured music sheet in the background illustrates a passage from the first verse within the Bohemian Rhapsody, arguably Freddie’s most intricate composition, which defied every industry rule: no chorus, six minutes long, operatic vocals, and still became a global hit.

Stardust plunge

93 x 67 cm - Oil on canvas painting

A classical marble bust of David Bowie as his Aladdin Sane persona, with his iconic red hair and lightning bolt makeup, stands on a pedestal flanked by marble columns and a vibrant striped backdrop.
Bowie was one of the select few artists who made an interdisciplinary impact.
Bowie treated identity as something fluid, constructed, and performative.
Through personas, he showed that the self could be reinvented endlessly.
A starry night circle halo behind the head blends cosmic space themes with the glam makeup, symbolising a fusion of Bowie's various eras - from Ziggy Stardust's celestial signature elements to his earthly rock stardom - while
disembodied hands below offer a globe and vintage microphone, evoking his global influence and musical legacy.

Dali's world

100 x 100 cm - Oil on canvas painting

This surrealist composition features the figure of Salvador Dalí and reinterprets the aesthetic used by the prolific Spanish painter.
The classical bust cradled by two golden elephant heads is a nod to the artist's iconic long-legged elephants that symbolise endurance and weightless strength. Historically, Dalí used elephants to carry symbols of desire - obelisks, towers, relics.
Dali’s bust replaces the treasures here, as a highlight of the
artist’s creative mastery and hyper-confident, playfully
provocative demeanour.
The Roman numerals that arch softly against a twilight sky, alongside the clock mechanism revealed on the bottom right side, are elements that quietly echo Dalí's profound meditations on the fluidity and persistence of time.

Stardust plunge- by Dorian Radu (3)_edited.jpg

Why ICONS?

This series has developed while searching for a visual language that merges different eras and styles - classical art, pop art, and surrealism. Artistic discourse often gravitates toward extremes: traditional art is sometimes dismissed as too obvious in the age of photography, while contemporary approaches are regarded by others as too bold, too unrefined.

I personally enjoy both sides of the spectrum, and my ambition is to push and create a mode of expression that allows them to coexist. Alongside these influences, I’m also incorporating comic book – specific aesthetics and visual devices. Comic books are imaginative, and accessible at first glance, yet deeply sophisticated in how they engage the viewer.

They rely on the reader’s active participation - inviting them to infer movement, rhythm, and emotion between panels. In this sense, superheroes function as a modern mythology, grappling with timeless human concerns such as power, responsibility, fear, and identity - ancient themes, simply reimagined through a contemporary lens.

Similar to superheroes in comics, the use of subjects such as Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, David Bowie, Salvador Dali or Freddie Mercury, is to highlight figures in history and pop culture who made an impact by stretching limits and approaching their craft differently than their predecesors.

While the series is an ongoing process, a continuous search still in its incipient phase, it is the start of a new visual language.

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The piece that started it all

In 2022, the passing of Queen Elizabeth II led me to study how she had been represented throughout art history. I found that most portrayals emphasised status, symbolism, and authority, often leaving little room for humanity. This observation prompted me to pursue a more intimate depiction—one that uses the concept of power as a means to suggest a deeper narrative, not a purpose in itself.

The resulting painting exists as an aftermath: a quiet, reflective moment shared with her corgis, exploring identity beyond title and hierarchy. It functions as an indirect meditation on the person behind the name, revealing sensitivity within a figure so often defined by authority.

The composition juxtaposes a universally recognised symbol of power with a companion indifferent to status, attached only to the individual. What began as a one-off work within my traditionally commission-based portrait practice soon evolved into something more expansive, opening a pathway toward the love for narrative and visual languages I had long admired but never previously explored.

From this shift emerged a broader inquiry into the many dimensions of human existence, articulated through historically and culturally recognised figures.

Thus, ICONS was born.

Title: Loyalty for Royalty

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 70 x 70 cm

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