Red1 2020

Monica Ikegwu made "Red1" using an economy of colour, mostly reds and blacks. It gives the painting a very specific mood. The process Ikegwu used here involves a great deal of careful, precise application of paint, so the gestures that form the image are small and controlled. What I notice about the material aspects of the painting is how the colour is built up through layering; look at the rich, translucent, surface of the lips, and the subtle gradations of tone, each carefully blended. It's as though each layer brings the image more fully into being, as if developing a photograph in a dark room. Then notice how this contrasts with the looser quality of the background. I'm reminded of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, though Yiadom-Boakye’s painting seems to emanate from an inner world of the artist's imagination, Ikegwu's work seems focused on the way light falls on the surface of the world.