French figurative painter Henri Lamy is fascinated by faces and the stories they tell. In his recent exhibition, Sovereign Faces, at the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art, he explored portraiture. Born in France in 1985, Henri grew up in a creative environment. His father encouraged creativity. As a child, he found inspiration in comic books. He later developed his distinctive work: expressive portraits with color and texture. Part of his physicality came from Capoeira. In 2014, Henri began merging painting with the Afro-Brazilian art form. He developed Capoeira Painting with his wife, Maïa d’Aboville, where the body is part of the creative act. The knife strokes had momentum.