CALVIN
Romans 10:7, 2022
Oil, acrylic, and mixed media on canvas
Created in Prague, Czech Republic
Size: 60 x 48 in / 152.4 x 121.9 cm
Depth: 36 mm
Price: $1,150,000 USD
In Romans 10:7, CALVIN transforms scripture into a visceral dialogue between heaven and descent — between spiritual longing and the human condition. The composition radiates with dense emotional architecture: swirling strokes of turquoise, rose, and alabaster collide in controlled chaos, surrounding a central form inscribed with the haunting phrase, “How can you be in hell when you’re in my heart?”
This question becomes the painting’s pulse — a cry of devotion and defiance that transcends doctrine. The surface, layered with oil, acrylic, and oil stick, bears the rhythm of both confession and resistance. Each texture is built up, erased, and rewritten, creating a terrain where gesture becomes language and color becomes sound.
Around the figure, the palette oscillates between divine light and psychological turbulence. The deep ultramarine borders act as both boundary and abyss, while the iridescent greens and pinks breathe life into the composition’s interior — suggesting resurrection within collapse.
CALVIN’s treatment of material is intensely physical; paint appears to have been sculpted rather than applied, carved into a living surface. The presence of angelic forms, fragmented symbols, and numerals evoke a coded spirituality — a visual sermon written in the syntax of emotion rather than theology.
Created in Prague, the work reflects the artist’s meditative period in Central Europe — a time marked by solitude, faith, and an unflinching examination of the self.
Valued at $1,150,000 USD, the price reflects its scale, intricacy, and significance within CALVIN’s evolving Neo-Expressionist canon. Romans 10:7 stands as one of his most emotionally charged and technically layered works — a painting that blurs the boundary between torment and transcendence.
A declaration, a prayer, and a confrontation in one — Romans 10:7 captures the paradox of divine love: the impossibility of separation, even in descent.
