‘The paintings are technically about astronauts, but they’re also about distance, pressure, performance, loneliness, ambition — things that feel very contemporary.’ — Michael Kagan

You can look at Michael Kagan’s paintings and see grit, determination, and bravery — but beneath the layers of thickly applied paint, there is also an undeniable vulnerability.

‘I’m less interested in astronauts as flawless heroes than as vulnerable human beings inside enormous systems and machinery,’ the artist explains.

Look closely at the astronaut’s visor: that’s where ‘everything collapses together — the astronaut, the landscape, the machinery, the photographer, history, light,’ he told us. ‘The visor becomes this distorted psychological space rather than just a reflective surface.’