Luis Lorenzana blends contemporary fantasy with a sophisticated painterly technique reminiscent of the Old Masters. Within his large-scale capricious landscape, Pompous Gathering of the Broken (Lot 2507), Lorenzana creates an epic fairytale with a motley gathering of characters including his plump, bemasked alter-ego, who alternates as cloaked superhero and mournful martyr within his solo exhibition, The Tales of the Beer Fairies. In Pompous Gathering, his alter-ego, clad in smoking jacket and white hose, gazes out at the viewer with large, limpid eyes, while perched on four legs like a mythical centaur. His heart appears to have transformed into a helium balloon, floating out of his chest along with a dangling small doll. Another recurring character, the cigarette-smoking Princess Pretender is accompanied by her retinue of taxidermied toys, scattered about the bizarre setting in somnolent attitudes. Glimpses of Lorenzana's whimsy - the bouquet of colourful translucent balloons, the striped lollipops - distract from the formality of the composition.

The surreal quality of Lorenzana's universe is strange and disturbing, yet the artist's skill in creating a smooth, unbroken, chiaroscuro landscape with impressive contours of light and shade binds the entire work together into a lucidly mesmerising image.