Resurrection 2022

Kateryna Lysovenko’s Resurrection is a kind of a supernatural portrait made with big brush marks and a bold palette of red, yellow, black, and white. I can just imagine the artist standing in front of the canvas, armed with her brushes and jars of paint! I love how Lysovenko fearlessly applies the paint, each stroke deliberate and expressive. Look at the figure’s body - thick swirls and thin washes of warm yellow collide in a fleshy mass. She almost appears to glow against the dark void behind her. Then there's the figure’s red horns, rendered in just a few confident strokes, adding a touch of the surreal to the work. The painting reminds me of Paula Rego, and the way she re-imagines mythological subjects. I wonder if Lysovenko was thinking about this kind of painter when she made this work. Whether she was or not, it shows how painting continues to evolve through an exchange of ideas across time, with artists constantly building on one another’s innovations.