Untitled 2006

This "Untitled" artwork by Heimo Zobernig is an experience in seeing, made with a restrained palette and minimal gesture. It's about surface, like looking at a wall, or a screen, searching for something that might not be there. Up close, you can see the paint isn't flat, but subtly worked. Look at the way the light catches the barely-there texture. It reminds me of Agnes Martin’s subtle grids, but with a kind of… punk attitude. The diamond shape is interesting, too. It takes the square, that ultimate symbol of modernist certainty, and turns it on its head, destabilizing it. There's a humility here that's really appealing, as if Zobernig is saying, "Look, this is just paint on a surface, but maybe, just maybe, there's something more to it." It’s this ‘maybe’ that keeps me looking.