Soldier's Bathhouse 1987

Here we have Holosiy's scene, "Soldier's Bathhouse," likely made with oil on canvas, or maybe even cardboard, given the rough texture. The painting is built up with these angular, decisive strokes of grey and ochre, punctuated by these odd, floating orange accents. I can almost feel the artist's hand moving, searching for form in the figures, smudging and scratching the paint. It’s a strangely compelling and unsettling world. The paint is applied in layers, but you can feel the artist working quickly, intuitively. What was Holosiy thinking about when he made this? Was it the rigid formality of military life, or the vulnerability beneath the surface? The way he renders the figures with a sort of blocky, almost cartoonish quality, reminds me of some of Philip Guston’s later work, that same raw, unrefined quality. Ultimately, Holosiy’s work reminds us that artists are always building upon and responding to one another, carrying on a visual conversation that spans time and transcends styles. It's about expression, ambiguity, and the sheer joy (or torment) of putting paint on a surface.