Two Universes Colliding 2017

Jana Brike painted ‘Two Universes Colliding’ with oils to show a tender moment between two lovers. The way she builds up the colour here, with these thin, translucent layers, reminds me of early Renaissance painting techniques. Look at how the freckles on their faces are rendered, it’s almost like they are stars or planets. And then the petals falling over them feel like a gentle rain. It is beautiful to see how the artist has taken care in capturing such fine details. See the tattoo on the woman's arm, and the text just below her collarbone: a mark that acts as a kind of personal seal. In some ways, the hyperrealism here reminds me of the kind of image-making you get in Odd Nerdrum's work, where there’s a similar attention to light, shadow and tone. Both artists seem to suggest that art’s not about capturing things perfectly, but about making things resonate with meaning. Brike’s painting invites us to find a place where logic ends and the dreamy possibilities of feeling begin.