Thomias Radin Inner Beast, 2024
Inner Beast is an oil and collage painting on canvas in artist wooden frame.
The central figure is a muscular man/demon with a cheetah print tail, cornrows, and gleaming red eyes and mouth. He is turned away from the viewer, but looks over his shoulder so as to maintain eye contact. The ground below him is marble and he is surrounded by swirling fluid brushstrokes in pastel colors.
Radin often deals with mythological figures and folktales in his work. For example referencing Greek mythology or the origin story of Guadeloupe, the Caribbean island on which he was born. In this work, the artist does not refer to a specific character from history or folktales. However, the title and the daemonic visage of the main character point towards this. The tension between man and "beast" is also typical of Radin's interest in transformation and figures that are part human and part nature or supernatural.