Natasha Lelenco, Currency #264, 2020s, Acrylic on Wood

Circular BIPOC portrait painted in acrylic on wood. This piece explores structural marginalization, identity, and the politics of resignation in contemporary society. Currency #264 by Natasha Lelenco presents the profile of a Black male figure, rendered with remarkable precision and emotional weight. Set against a muted, powder-blue background, the subject's gaze extends outward, calm but alert. The inscription surrounding the portrait reads: "It's just the way it is", a phrase often used to normalize systemic inequality. Rather than a passive observation, the text functions here as a commentary on structural resignation—an expression of how acceptance is sometimes a coping mechanism for those negotiating life within dominant systems. This work speaks to racialized experience, particularly as it pertains to how Black men are perceived, represented, and understood within sociopolitical frameworks. It forms part of Lelenco's Currencies series, where anonymous faces replace the heads of state traditionally seen on coins, offering instead a diverse and emotionally charged archive of contemporary humanity. Painted on a 26 cm diameter circular panel of treated pine wood and finished with hand-painted edges and varnish, the piece combines painting with sculptural form. The dimensionality of the object, its tactile surface, and minimal color palette foreground the figure’s presence while allowing the text to resonate with quiet insistence. Like all pieces in the Currencies series, this artwork is conceived to function individually or in modular installations with other works. The format lends itself to scalable display solutions, where collectors and designers can build visual constellations around themes of identity, displacement, and shared humanity. Together, they form sculptural ensembles with powerful curatorial potential. Additionally, each piece in the series participates in a conceptual dual-value system: beyond its economic price, the artwork can later be exchanged for a new work by the artist, thereby extending its role as a symbolic and transactional object within the artist’s practice. This interrogates the dynamics of labor, authorship, and symbolic worth in the art world.