For American artist Ferrari Sheppard, painting is “100% spiritual”. The studio is his refuge and when he paints it often feels like “some greater energy is creating the work”. Growing up in Chicago in the 1990s, Ferrari was a self-confessed “art geek”. When it came to college, he gained a place at the prestigious Fine Art Institute of Chicago. However, the overly-conceptual BA programme ended up pushing Ferrari away from painting, and after he graduated in 2004, he started his career as a writer, photographer and music producer. In 2016, Ferrari returned to his “true purpose” in visual art, and began developing his layered, deeply expressive portraits with acrylic, charcoal and 24-karat gold leaf. His audacious signature style garnered much attention in the art world, and almost a decade later he is firmly cemented as a leading figure in contemporary art.