There's a hole in Kirby Roxas' sky

Fantasy mixes with reality from this Art Verité Gallery exhibit

- S. C. FOJAS

MEET THE ARTIST Kirby Roxas

Kirby Roxas' exhibit "A Hole in the Sky" does not announce itself with grand gestures.

The works are modest in number, just six, but their presence fills the gallery with a quiet intensity. To spend time with them is to be reminded of how Kirby has consistently redefined the role of the painted surface. For over a decade, he has been creating lenticular paintings, the kind that shift depending on where the viewer stands, demanding an engagement that is both physical and perceptual. In this latest show, he pushes the idea further, constructing not simply shifting images but layered portals, openings into other places where memory, fantasy, and longing converge.

At first, the works appear straightforward. Acrylic on wood and canvas, neatly framed, hanging still against white walls. But the stillness is deceptive. As you move in front of them, scenes flicker and transform, the surface of the painting revealing multiple worlds at once. Kirby does not settle for illusion—he builds his canvases like layered stages, each one hiding another, like stories tucked inside stories. The experience is almost cinematic, as if each painting were spliced into frames of a film reels, and the viewer's body moving across the room becomes the projector.