Mamut's Café 

Curator: This lovely watercolor, "Mamut's Café," is by Nutzi Acontz. Immediately striking, isn't it? Editor: Yes! The translucent washes create such an immediate, ephemeral feeling. It looks like it was captured in one breath. You can almost feel the heat radiating from the paper. Curator: The artist employs the *plein-air* style which can be seen here with the rendering of light and capturing fleeting atmospheric conditions. The figures, with their fez hats, feel pulled from a half-remembered dream. Editor: Right, and observe how the artist makes use of the paper. Acontz integrates the grain into the form making it the artwork and image one object, so there is no gap between viewing and existing in the work. Curator: Acontz's use of color really tells a story here. The somber dark jackets with light neutral architecture could tell of the traditional ways that met with the neutral tones of modernity, for instance. How the café might exist as a vessel of memory amidst development. Editor: I’m especially drawn to the rapid strokes indicating foliage and tree trunks. These don't strive for photo-realism, but indicate the materials are present, natural, existing beyond this very document. It looks almost performative. Curator: Yes, the loose brushwork conveys an impression, as opposed to a photographic representation. It leaves room for the viewer's imagination. Acontz isn’t just painting a scene, she's capturing a mood, a memory of a specific moment in time. Editor: This work really showcases watercolor as more than preliminary sketchwork, a place that can contain so many referents beyond capturing a direct record, it gives the object, in a way, power. Curator: A powerful way of capturing not just a physical place, but the essence of cultural life and transformation within it. Editor: It seems like a meditation on how place and perception coalesce through the act of artistic rendering. Fascinating.