Untitled 2005

Makinti Napanangka made this Untitled painting, using acrylic on linen, with lots of yellow, orange, and lavender. I can imagine Makinti making these marks, one by one, patiently, maybe sitting on the floor, turning the canvas as she went. It's like she’s mapping something—a place, a memory, a songline. I feel like I’m looking at a landscape from above. Each line is a tiny bit wobbly, human, and full of feeling. There’s something so direct about the paint, thin in some places, thicker in others, but never trying too hard to be anything other than what it is. It reminds me of Agnes Martin’s grids, but wilder, more organic. I think all painters are talking to each other across time, nodding, agreeing, and disagreeing. Makinti’s work sings to me, saying, ‘Here is another way of seeing, another way of being in the world.’