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Selected Works

Most traditional paintings assume the image exists fully formed on the canvas. The viewer simply receives it. But in my paintings, the viewer becomes an active participant in completing the work. The paintings change depending on where the body is in relation to the work. One cannot fully experience my paintings from a single fixed point. These pieces exist in the transition between fragmented abstraction and the larger resolved image, mirroring how human consciousness actually works.

SHIFTING EGO
32 x 48 inches, acrylic on panel

Shifting Ego explores the idea that our sense of identity is never completely fixed. Just like our memories, emotions, and life experiences, who we are is constantly changing and being shaped over time.

The painting invites viewers to slow down and experience that process for themselves. Up close, the image breaks apart into thousands of small squares of color, making it difficult to recognize the face. As you step back, those individual pieces begin to come together, and a portrait gradually appears.

Your movement is an important part of the work. The painting changes as you move, reminding us that understanding often comes with distance. Sometimes we're too close to a situation, or even to ourselves, to see the bigger picture. Only by stepping back do patterns begin to emerge.

In that way, Shifting Ego isn't just a portrait of a person. It's a reflection on how we see, how we make sense of the world, and how our identity is built from many experiences that slowly come together into something we recognize as ourselves.

MULTIPLICITY OF SELF
32 x 48 inches, acrylic on panel

This piece explores identity as something fluid and constructed rather than singular or fixed. From a distance, the work resolves into a cohesive image, but up close it breaks apart into countless small painted fragments, challenging the viewer’s perception of wholeness. This shift between clarity and dissolution reflects the idea that the self is assembled through shifting perceptions, memories, and internal states. The piece ultimately positions identity as something actively formed by the viewer’s experience of looking rather than a stable visual truth.

BEST IN SHOW - 2026
Gilpin Arts 79th Annual Juried Art Show

WARRIOR ARCHETYPE: GUERRERA
36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas

This explores the warrior archetype through a distinctly youthful presence, where strength and vulnerability coexist within the same figure. From a distance, the image resolves into a determined young warrior, but up close it breaks into layered fragments that resist any singular reading of identity or experience. The emphasis on youth adds a tension between formation and becoming, suggesting the archetype is still being shaped by memory, expectation, and inherited narratives. In this way, the work frames the warrior not as a fixed ideal, but as an evolving identity assembled through perception and lived possibility.

WARRIOR ARCHETYPE: SHUJAA
36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas

Presenting the figure of the warrior not as a singular cultural symbol, but as a layered archetype shaped by collective memory and interpretation. From a distance, the image resolves into a recognizable human presence charged with strength and resolve, while up close it dissolves into countless painted fragments that destabilize any fixed identity. This shifting structure suggests that the “warrior” is both personal and universal, constructed through overlapping histories, mythologies, and psychological projections. The work reframes archetype as something actively assembled by perception rather than inherited as a fixed image.

WARRIOR ARCHETYPE: SAVASCI
36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas

Fragmentation interrupts the unity of the face, preventing a seamless perceptual reading. The viewer is required to negotiate between recognition and breakdown, holding both simultaneously. The work sustains this tension rather than resolving it.

WARRIOR ARCHETYPE: AKICHITA
36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas

The Lakota warrior emerges from fractured planes of color as both individual and ancestral presence. The face appears weathered by memory, carrying the psychological weight of conflict while maintaining an unbroken sense of dignity. In Jungian terms, the warrior archetype here transcends aggression; it becomes a symbol of sacred duty, courage, and alignment with collective identity. The Akíčhita was historically expected to embody restraint, honor, and sacrifice in service of the tribe, and those qualities permeate the painting’s solemn intensity.

WARRIOR ARCHETYPE: EISHES CHAYIL
36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas

This portrait channels the warrior archetype through the lens of Jewish historical memory, where survival and spiritual endurance become inseparable. The fractured mosaic surface evokes generations shaped by exile, persecution, resistance, and resilience—from ancient Judean conflicts to the diasporic struggles that defined Jewish identity across centuries. The face appears simultaneously wounded and unwavering, suggesting a psyche forged not only through battle, but through remembrance.

ARCHITECTURES OF MEMORY: GOTHAM
48 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas

This painting engages the city as both structure and psychological residue, where urban space becomes a map of memory rather than a literal place. From a distance, the work resolves into a recognizable architectural or cityscape image, but up close it fractures into thousands of discrete painted units that disrupt fixed reading. This oscillation between coherence and fragmentation suggests that “Gotham” is not a single city but a layered accumulation of impressions, histories, and perceptions. The piece positions architecture as something remembered and reconstructed by the viewer, rather than passively observed.

cacek-gotham
Selected for the 78th Midwestern Biennial at the Rockford Art Museum,
May 22 – September 27, 2026

URBAN RESOLUTION
30 x 30 inches, acrylic on canvas

The composition compresses architectural space into a fragmented visual field that resists immediate spatial logic. Structure is not depicted but constructed through the viewer’s perceptual engagement, shifting from disorientation to coherence with distance. The work frames the built environment as an active cognitive assembly rather than a stable, objective reality.

ARTIFICIAL BRILLIANCE
36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas

The image suggests a mode of perception shaped by constructed or mediated systems. Fragmentation feels less organic, emphasizing assembly over observation. Clarity appears as something engineered rather than naturally perceived.