Inspired by his personal experiences growing up in Africa and the current cultural and political state of society, Stanley is driven to create drawings that trigger an emotional connection between the viewers and his artworks. Using his works as a form of social and political activism, Stanley hopes to use his art to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves Regarding his new series, Stanley says, “My art is born out of the zeal for perfection both in skill, expression, and devotion to create positive changes in the world."

The great reverence that Mendoza has for the past (and an equal infatuation with the lurking shadow of the future) is omnipresent in his alla prima portraits, which pay tribute to his literary heroes. His combination of expressionism and neorealism embodies the era in which many of his subjects thrived. As a perpetual student of history, he draws a line from late modernism through post-contemporary art.

Such is the field upon which the mouth in portraiture has been debated: an ongoing conflict between the serious and the smirk. The most famous and enduring portrait in the world functions around this very conflict. Millions of words have been devoted to the Mona Lisa and her smirk – more generously known as her ‘enigmatic smile’ — and so today it’s difficult to write about her without sensing that you’re at the back of a very long and noisy queue that stretches all the way back to 16th century Florence.