Untitled 2004

Makinti Napanangka made this untitled painting using acrylic paint. It’s a landscape alright, rendered in warm shades of yellow ochre, and deep browns – maybe a landscape of the mind, of memory? I can imagine Makinti, brush in hand, moving across the canvas with short, rhythmic strokes, building up the surface bit by bit. I wonder if she felt like she was carving a space out, revealing a hidden order? The textures here are everything: The way the paint sits on the canvas, thick in some places, thin in others. The lines are not just lines, they’re traces of movement, of energy. The repetitive marks remind me of Agnes Martin, but also the landscape painting of Joan Mitchell; Makinti is in conversation with them all. It shows how painting is a way of thinking, a way of feeling, and how it's a language that speaks across cultures and time.