Sum Of All Parts 2018

Martine Johanna made this piece, "Sum of All Parts", sometime in the 20th century. Look at how Johanna uses this buttery oil paint – almost like she's thinking about the push and pull of color as a form of process. There's such a contrast between the hyper-realism of the woman's face and the geometric abstraction that interrupts her body. The solid black shape is so present. It’s graphic, yes, but it also creates a physical barrier, questioning how much we can really know about a person. Then there's the interplay of light and shadow, particularly in the rendering of her hands; those are passages of incredibly delicate detail. It almost feels like Johanna is having a conversation with someone like Marlene Dumas, who also blurs the boundaries between figuration and emotional abstraction. It’s this kind of push and pull, this resistance to easy answers, that makes art so compelling. We're left to navigate the space between what is seen and what remains hidden.