Head

"Head" is a fanciful self-portrait in the grotesquerie tradition of artists such as Giuseppe Archimboldo (Italian, 1527-1593) whereby the central form/ subject is composed of smaller individuated components that create an illusory composite. In the famous examples by Archimboldo, portraits are composed of fruit, flowers, vegetables, or other meaningful materials such as books. Up close, or turned on its side, the viewer would recognize only the well-painted fruit and other objects. From a distance and right side-up, a startlingly accurate likeness of the portrait subject congeals. Grimley's self-portrait consists of a menagerie of animals, women, and myriad other oozing, slithering, stretching and breathing creatures.