Mihail Chemiakin, Map of Brazil with Metaphysical Portrait, Original Drawing, 1980

Mihail Chemiakin, Map of Brazil with Metaphysical Portrait, Original Drawing, 1980

A rare and thought-provoking work by Mihail Chemiakin, this original 1980 drawing transforms a geographic map of Brazil into a deeply symbolic figure, merging cartographic form with surrealist introspection. The river systems and topography of the Amazon basin become the internal anatomy of a stylized head and torso—Brazil reimagined as both landscape and living consciousness.

In Chemiakin’s hands, the map is not just geographic but psychological. The continent’s features are subtly shaped into human profiles, hands, and symbolic elements, emphasizing the relationship between place and identity. Part of his celebrated Transformations series, this work exemplifies Chemiakin’s ability to merge found imagery with metaphysical vision—geography becomes portraiture, and borders give way to introspection.

Signed and dated in the upper right corner, this is an extraordinary and uncommon example of Chemiakin’s conceptual drawing, executed in fine pen on paper.