Above the Icebergs 1991

Oleg Holosiy painted ‘Above the Icebergs’ using oil, though its date is unknown. The whole thing is soaked in deep blues and greens, moody and atmospheric, with the moon hanging above like a spotlight. Holosiy's handling of paint is interesting, it's both transparent and opaque, allowing under layers to peek through, which gives it a kind of luminosity. There’s this fantastic hot air balloon floating in the sky, rendered with a few simple strokes, but so evocative. I think about other painters who work in this way, like Peter Doig, maybe, with their shared interest in creating slightly surreal, dreamlike landscapes, or maybe an earlier artist like Caspar David Friedrich. But Holosiy brings something unique, a certain rawness and immediacy that feels very contemporary, it seems to want to suggest ambiguity and multiple interpretations.