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Stunningly Realistic Portraits Created with Thousands of Tiny Holes

Norwegian artist Anne-Karin Furunes crafts images that fool the eye. At first glance, her monochromatic portraits look like photographs, but are definitely not. They're actually painted canvases that are punctuated by thousands of tiny, hand-punched holes. Light plays an important role in her pieces, and the entire work can change its appearance based on the surrounding luminance.

The perforation creates moody images that have an air of mystery about them, and they give the feeling that they could exist in both the past and present times. On one hand, the darkened edges and diffused faces gives the portraits an aged look; subjects seem to resemble young women from the Victorian era. The style and placement of the holes, however, has a more contemporary feel of the digital pixelation that we often see. Furunes has used this duality to form intriguing works that are simply stunning to view.

The artist has been developing this special perforation technique since the early 1990's when she was studying at the Art Academy of Trondheim. Watch the video below to get an idea of just how large these incredible works really are and learn more about her process.


Anne-Karin Furunes on Barry Friedman, Ltd. website
via [The Jealous Curator]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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