In the exhibition Imagine, you’re young and know what you want, Gian Manik continues to speculate on the futures and legacies of reproduced artworks by responding to the ontology of “institutional painting”, as canonised in Western art history. In this petite painting, the artist reflects on the commodification of artworks and their reproductions within the global art market, and merges this with the personal.

On view is a one-to-one scale reproduction of Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with Dishevelled Hair, presented in a bespoke brushed steel frame that floats slightly off the wall. The original work, the first of many self-portraits by the Dutch master, was made in 1628, when he was just twenty-two years old. Circuitously, Manik connects Rembrandt’s portrait to one he himself created at the same age, which now hangs in his family home. It is displayed among replicas made by the artist, his mother, and his grandfather, including copies of 17th-century European paintings produced while learning how to paint and in the process of honing that craft. Subsequently, Imagine, you’re young and know what you want, operates for the artist as a mnemonic device, embodying notions of vocation, desire, and youth while subverting hierarchical aesthetic distinctions of high and low.