Untitled 1995

Houria Niati made this untitled piece with paint and maybe some other media; there is an element of collage, and drawing too. Niati works with a limited palette of blacks and greys, but look closer and you'll see some lavenders and ochres in there too. The dark swathes create a kind of oppressive atmosphere in the piece, which is balanced by the more gestural areas in pastel shades, which look almost like erasures, or corrections. The work is full of texture, from the cursive text on the left to the shadowy figures on the right; it almost feels like a stage, or a dream. There’s something so satisfying about the way these darks and lights work together. It reminds me a little of some of Nancy Spero’s work, but maybe with more angst. It’s a real testament to the way art embraces ambiguity.