There’s something magnetic about Gabriel Malak’s portraits. The women he paints aren’t just beautiful—they’re built with intention. They carry stories in their eyes, defiance in their posture, and history in every layer of paint. From glossy red lips to fractured backdrops, Malak’s work explores how feminine identity is constructed, worn, and sometimes quietly unravelled.
At The London Art Exchange, Malak has earned a loyal following for his ability to blend modern aesthetics with timeless emotional cues. His women don’t ask for your gaze—they meet it. Head-on. Unapologetically. Take ‘High Fashion’. It’s not just a pretty face. The work is styled like an editorial close-up—flashes of gold, bold colour on the lips, skin rendered in warm light. But look deeper and you’ll see tension. Cracks in the canvas, scratched surfaces, bold strokes fighting with smooth polish. Malak builds contrast—between perfection and reality, luxury and rawness, softness and strength.
It’s a theme that runs across his portfolio. Smile Habiba presents us with an elegant, composed figure—but the smile is closed-lipped. She’s not selling anything. Her expression is her own. The background? Subtle, faded, as if to suggest everything around her is negotiable. Except her. Then there’s The Warrior. A visual love letter to resilience. Still feminine. Still composed. But layered with grit—both figuratively and literally. Malak uses paint like armour here, dragging thick textures across the canvas to remind us that beauty can be worn like protection too. What makes Malak’s work so compelling is how he handles the female form—not as a symbol, but as a reality. His women are adorned, styled, presented—but never flattened. There’s glamour, but it’s intentional. You don’t get the sense these women were painted for the viewer. If anything, it feels like we’ve stumbled into their world. They’re not posing. They’re existing and yet, the nod to fashion is ever-present. These works wouldn’t look out of place in a Vogue spread or a runway campaign—but that’s the genius. Malak understands visual culture. He doesn’t shy away from gloss. He just makes sure it doesn’t dilute the depth. Rather than leaning into literal mythology, Malak seems to pull from modern archetypes: the muse, the model, the memory.
There’s a cinematic feel to his subjects—like stills from a film we can’t quite place, or faces we’ve passed on the street but never fully understood. This is portraiture that understands the era it’s in. It borrows from fashion photography, editorial styling, and even influencer-era imagery—but flips it into something more grounded. The result? Paintings that feel familiar and elevated all at once. From a collector’s perspective, Malak’s work is as investable as it is striking. Pieces like Fragments of a Vivid Dream and Colour Coded have already entered private collections, and his newer works are gaining traction through LAX’s print and exhibition programme. Each painting feels tailored to live in a space—not just on a wall, but within a story. A room with a Malak isn’t just decorated—it’s defined.That’s part of his appeal. His work feels intentional, curated, like it belongs in places where meaning matters.
What’s Next for Malak?
Gabriel Malak is currently building on this feminine–fashion–form trilogy with a new body of work that continues to layer identity through visual and textural dialogue. Think softness with edge. Beauty with history. You’ll see more cracked gold, blurred lips, painted confidence. And you’ll see more of what makes his work so recognisable: women who don’t need context to be compelling.
These aren’t characters. They’re statements. And they’re being collected just as quickly as they’re being released.
