03.11.16-20 2016

Andrzej Nowacki made this small painting in 2016; it’s a dance of vertical black strokes meeting a solid square of red at the bottom. You know, sometimes painting feels like a conversation you're having with yourself. I imagine Nowacki starting with those marks, like dark thoughts finding their way onto the canvas, each one a little different, some fuzzy, some sharp. And then comes this little red square, grounding the whole thing – a punctuation mark, or maybe an answer. It's like he’s saying, “Okay, but what about this?” It’s a question that shifts everything. I love the way a single gesture can do that. The red isn't just color; it’s a decision. And that’s what painting is: a series of decisions, layer upon layer, until you arrive at something you didn’t expect. Nowacki probably didn't start knowing he’d end up here, but he let the painting lead him, stroke by stroke. And so it goes, we're all just talking to each other, across time, across canvases.