Dibirdibi Country 2012

Sally Gabori made this painting, Dibirdibi Country, with white and grey paint on a black ground. You can feel the brushstrokes and the way she built up the white impasto. Imagine her at work, maybe standing, maybe sitting, moving the brush across the canvas, back and forth, up and down. It’s kind of like a conversation, right? The black ground saying something, then the white coming in to respond. The white shapes really come alive against the black. They remind me of cascading forms or even some kind of land formation. Gabori doesn’t hold back, each stroke is confident and bold! I think about artists like Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell, the way they use black and white to make paintings that are both abstract and full of feeling. It makes me think about how painters are always talking to each other, across time and space, you know?