Christchurch Manchester Street, Christchurch (Post-Quake) Acrylic on canvas, 2013

Leon Aarts b. 1961, Christchurch Manchester Street, Christchurch (Post-Quake) Acrylics on canvas, 2013 ~600 x 500 mm | Signed lower right

Painted two years after the February 22, 2011 earthquake, this work transforms shattered façades into screaming faces and rubble into flesh. The defiant nude rises from the red zone — a surreal requiem for Manchester Street.

“By 2013, the dust had settled. The wound was still open.” — Leon Aarts, 2013

Overall Rating: 47.5 / 50

★★★★¾ (4.8 Stars)

“Aarts’ mature Guernica — the definitive elegy for Manchester Street.”