Mia 2018

Vincent Xeus made this portrait, titled 'Mia', date unknown, probably in oil paint. It's great, right? The way the brushstrokes are so present, like the painting is still in the process of becoming. You can almost see the artist circling the canvas, searching, adjusting. That's painting! Look at the texture, how the paint is dragged horizontally across the surface, blurring the figure into the background, especially around the edges of her form. But then there are these little details, like the soft pink on her cheeks, that bring her into focus. The limited palette - the red, blue, and grey - gives the painting a melancholic, dreamlike quality. It reminds me of Gerhard Richter's blurred portraits, or maybe even some of the more figurative works of Marlene Dumas. It's like Xeus is saying, "Here's a person, but also, here's the act of painting itself". And that, for me, is what makes art so endlessly fascinating, it’s a constant conversation.