Guy Hepner Gallery

Punkmetender The Distance Within (Van Gogh) For Sale

Punkmetender
Punkmetender - The Distance Within (Van Gogh), 2026, Oil on canvas with handwritten epoxy resin | Signed and Dated

The Distance Within (Van Gogh), 2026

Oil on canvas with handwritten epoxy resin | Signed and Dated

60x48 in.

About this work

THE DISTANCE WITHIN (VAN GOGH) Punkmetender has emerged as a distinctive voice in contemporary art, building a practice that interrogates the psychological weight of art historical legacy while pushing material boundaries. The artist's work occupies a compelling position at the intersection of conceptual portraiture and textual intervention, attracting collectors drawn to pieces that reward sustained engagement. The Distance Within (Van Gogh) presents the legendary Dutch painter rendered in rich, expressive brushwork that consciously echoes its subject's own technique. The composition captures Van Gogh in a moment of introspection, his gaze directed away from the viewer, establishing an emotional remove that speaks to the work's central theme. Layers of handwritten text suspended in epoxy resin float across the surface, creating a physical barrier between viewer and subject. This textual veil transforms the portrait into a meditation on artistic legacy, the impossibility of truly knowing historical figures, and the narratives we construct around them. The amber-toned palette and visible gestural marks demonstrate considerable technical facility while maintaining conceptual rigour. At sixty by forty-eight inches, the work commands significant presence. The integration of resin and oil creates subtle dimensional shifts as viewing angles change, revealing new configurations of text and image. This is a unique work, signed and dated by the artist, representing a singular opportunity within the artist's expanding oeuvre. The Distance Within (Van Gogh) exemplifies the kind of intellectually substantive yet visually compelling work that defines serious contemporary collections. For acquisition enquiries or to arrange a private viewing, please contact Guy Hepner.

Price on Application

Edition & Provenance

Year
2026
Medium
Oil on canvas with handwritten epoxy resin | Signed and Dated
Edition
1/1

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About the Membrane Series

Roman Lefebvre is a French multidisciplinary artist working across digital film, photography, painting and sculpture. His practice examines the invisible structures through which perception becomes memory, belief and reality.

Across both digital and material forms, Lefebvre explores the distance between seeing something and possessing its meaning. His earlier practice under the moniker Punkmetender established a visual language of metamorphosis, beauty and repetition; urrent work moves those concerns toward time, consciousness and the instability of representation.

Membrane examines the unstable boundary between what is visible and what remains inaccessible. Historical portraits, sacred figures and classical forms are altered through oil painting, abrasion, handwritten language and transparent epoxy resin.

The surface preserves the image while interrupting access to it. Writing does not explain the subject; it becomes another veil placed between the viewer and certainty.

The series asks whether revelation produces understanding, or simply expands the unknown.

In Membrane, that investigation becomes physical through oil painting, abrasion, handwritten language and transparent epoxy resin. Images are preserved while access to them is interrupted, creating a tension between revelation and concealment.

“The image reveals itself without surrendering its meaning."

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The Distance Within (Van Gogh)

About Punkmetender

Roman Lefebvre is a French multidisciplinary artist based in Miami. Born in Paris and shaped by nearly two decades in Los Angeles, Lefebvre played an integral role in developing the visual identity, design language and studio practice of Mr. Brainwash during the formative years of his international career. He is featured in the Academy Award- nominated documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop and worked alongside Banksy and other influential figures of the international street-art movement.

Under the name Punkmetender, Lefebvre subsequently established an independent international practice spanning painting, sculpture, installation and large-scale public work. His works are held in prominent private collections internationally, including those of a member of the Getty family, Mariah Carey, Khloé Kardashian, Paris Hilton and Dave Navarro, among others.

Now working under his own name, Lefebvre is expanding his practice through digital film and Membrane, a materially layered series examining perception, memory and the unstable boundary between image and reality. Moving between contemporary digital figures and historical imagery transformed through oil painting, abrasion, handwritten language and transparent epoxy resin, his work explores how beauty is preserved, disrupted and reinterpreted across time.

Available through Guy Hepner in New York.

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