Masquerade is a series born from the quiet rituals of becoming. It is a visual and emotional exploration of the masks we wear some chosen, some inherited, some stitched together from survival. Each painting holds a fragment of self, a moment of tension between visibility and concealment, performance and truth.
This body of work does not seek to resolve identity. It seeks to honour its complexity.
Each painting in Masquerade is a mask and a mirror. A performance and a confession. A dance between who I am and who I am becoming.
This series is not about hiding. It is about revealing. It is about the courage to name what has shaped us and the grace to imagine what might come next.
Welcome to Masquerade. You are invited to look closely, to feel deeply and to unmask alongside me.
Esther Akello 