Gabriele 2008

Gazmend Freitag made "Gabriele" with pen and ink, look at the hatching, all those tiny lines laid down to build up form and shadow. You can really feel the hand in this work, the way Freitag coaxes the figure out of the blank page bit by bit. It's a slow reveal. The ink is mostly black, with these little hints of blue to keep things lively. It's like a conversation, the ink telling the story of the figure, the paper listening and holding it all together. Notice how the lines vary, some are bold and confident, others are tentative, almost disappearing. It’s like Freitag is thinking aloud with his pen. I am drawn to the way Freitag defines the stocking on the left leg, where the tone shifts from light to dark, it's like a little poem about light and shadow, presence and absence. It reminds me of some of Alice Neel's drawings, that same sense of immediacy and raw emotion. But Freitag has his own voice, his own way of seeing. And that's what makes art so exciting, isn't it?