Julius Karoubi
Napkin
Glass, polymer plaster, grout, stained pine
52 × 42 cm
<p>Julius Karoubi's Napkin is a mixed media work combining glass, polymer plaster, grout, and stained pine. The piece presents a vertically oriented, stylized figure rendered entirely in mosaic, with the head occupying the upper portion of the composition and the body below, centered around a prominent yellow flower form. The palette is built from cut tesserae in yellow, green, orange, red, brown, black, grey, and white, with white grout lines running throughout and doing significant compositional work, defining edges and creating pattern across the flat picture plane. The surface has a matte overall quality, with the stained pine frame containing the mosaic flush to its edges. The mosaic technique, with its visible, varied tesserae and consistent grout network, gives the figure a geometric, fragmented quality that sits somewhere between folk image-making and decorative abstraction.</p>
