Dark Waters 2017

Jana Brike painted "Dark Waters," sometime after 1980, but with what, exactly, I'm not sure; there's a layered, glazed finish that evokes oil, but also something else entirely. It gives the whole painting this dreamlike quality, like memory mixed with a bit of mythology. Look at the water, how she builds up these waves with such short, confident strokes. It’s like she’s wrestling with the paint, trying to capture this wildness, but at the same time, there's a sense of control. Then, these figures emerging from the water, all softness and light. The contrast is striking; the cool blues of the sea against the warm pinks of their skin. It's interesting to think about how Brike sets up a conversation between a more classical style of figurative painting and a looser, more experimental approach to rendering the natural world. Like Paula Rego or perhaps Francesca Woodman, Brike uses the female form to create images that are both beautiful and subtly unsettling. It’s a reminder that art is never really finished, just an ongoing process of questioning and reimagining.