Migration IV explores the emotional weight carried by young families starting over in a new land. The father is shown bearing both his partner and their child, his face marked by effort and fierce resolve. There’s a tenderness in the way he holds them, but the strain in his hands and posture makes visible the physical and psychological burden of protecting one's family while navigating the unknown.

The mother, cradling the familiar checkered blanket that runs throughout the series, turns inward—her gaze fixed solely on the child in her arms. She is fully present yet partially abstracted, her outline fading into the deep blue of the background. This soft dissolution hints at how nurturing can eclipse the self, especially under the pressures of migration. Her attention is entirely on the baby, whose presence symbolises both vulnerability and hope—a new beginning, rooted in love but shadowed by displacement.

The composition is split once more between two bold colour fields: deep blue and golden yellow. The figures stretch across both, visually suspended between memory and future, heritage and adaptation. Painted in a language of abstracted realism, the scene slips in and out of clarity. Drips and exposed underdrawings bleed through the figures and background, echoing the ongoing passage of time and the fragility of identity in flux.

This work, like the rest of the series, is anchored by personal symbols. The checkered blanket—once belonging to the artist’s mother—offers a constant thread of continuity across borders and generations. Here, it serves as both shield and shroud, wrapping the family in a legacy of comfort and memory, even as they step into unfamiliar terrain.

Migration IV

100 x 120 cm

Oil on Canvas

2025