Solid state 2015

Eckart Hahn made Solid State, and it looks like it was made with thin washes of oil paint. The process is invisible, with a smooth surface that hides the hand, but the colors are so saturated and bright that they feel modern. Look at how the rope is painted; it's like he's rendering every single strand, like a photorealist, but then the rope turns into this loopy, almost cartoonish shape. The bird is perched on top, looking regal but also kind of absurd. The whole thing feels so meticulously rendered, yet it's also totally weird and dreamlike. I'm thinking of Magritte, but with a contemporary, slightly more unsettling vibe. It reminds me that art is this ongoing conversation across time, with each artist building on what came before, but always adding their own strange, personal twist. Hahn embraces that ambiguity, leaving us with more questions than answers, which is exactly what makes it so compelling.