Invitation by Leon Aarts. Acrylics on panel. (sold)

This acrylic painting, "Invitation" (2009) by Leon Aarts (b. 1966, Christchurch, New Zealand), is a dreamlike, disorienting threshold—a procession of elongated, ghostly figures (perhaps revelers or wanderers) beckoning from a labyrinthine structure of fractured walls and swaying forms, the architecture melting into blue-green waves like a seaside mirage, as if the invitation is to a party at the edge of reality, where doors open to vertigo. Painted in the serene prelude to Christchurch's 2010 earthquake, this horizontal mid-scale work (approx. 40×20 inches) captures Aarts at his most Fauvist-figurative, beckoning the viewer into a Whatdoesitmean lure: What do we accept when the doorway promises wonder but whispers warning?

Final Verdict: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

A charming, chimerical call—"Invitation" is Leon Aarts' Matisse at the mantel, his Picasso party favor, gesturing to wonder with wavering warmth. Less possessive than HIS, less declarative than I AM, but gentler in its gesture—art as RSVP. For threshold-crossers or party-philosophers, it's a welcoming wonder ; this isn't a door inviting—it's the step across, half-taken.

"They stood at the arch, arms outstretched like waves. The blue beckoned. The red whispered: come, if you dare."