Jack Nicholson 1973

Charles Garabedian's "Jack Nicholson" is, well, it’s a painted sculpture—a relief, really, like a wonky collage of objects that coalesce into something pretty uncanny. What strikes me is the way Garabedian builds up these forms with layers of paint, creating an almost topographical surface. Look at the face, all those cross-hatched lines and scribbled textures, like he's mapping out the terrain of Nicholson's features. It feels almost archaeological, as if Garabedian is digging into the image, excavating it from some collective memory. Then there are these odd objects floating around—bottles, dollar bills, a bowling pin—each rendered with this same obsessive attention to texture and line. There’s a wonderful tension here, this balance between representation and abstraction, control and chaos. It reminds me a bit of Philip Guston's later work, that embrace of the grotesque and the absurd. Ultimately, this piece feels like a reminder that art is always a process of discovery, of wrestling with materials and ideas until something unexpected emerges.