Untitled (from Collection Resonance) 2011

Monique Orsini made this untitled piece, likely with acrylic or ink, through a process of building up transparent layers, allowing colors to mix and bleed into one another. The way the medium thins and pools suggests an openness to chance and improvisation. I see that especially in the upper left corner where the colors separate and feather out. It’s as if the paint has been coaxed across the surface, following its own inclinations and rhythms. The redness in the upper right feels decisive, even assertive, while the blues and greens beneath seem more tentative, like they’re feeling their way through the dark. I’m reminded of Helen Frankenthaler, particularly in the way Orsini coaxes the paint to stain and saturate the canvas, allowing the material qualities of the medium to guide the composition. But Orsini has a vocabulary all her own. It’s a reminder that painting is really just one long conversation. A call and response across time. We can never know exactly what's coming next.